The HeX Factor
by daruma-sama
Summary: Roxas, Ventus and Sora are triplets that develop mutant powers. They go to the Mickey Institute for gifted youths to try and learn to control them. Roxas/Axel:Sora/Riku:Zexion/Demyx The list goes on.
1. Elements, Shadows, Light

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

**A/N:** Okay, since I live in Southern California and we are getting pummeled by rain, lightning and tornadoes. I got the idea to start this story...well, watching xmen evolution helped too, but that's besides the point. Anyways, there are a lot of footnotes and I suggest you read them because I will explain more about their individual powers later on in the story. Especially Sora's because his is the only one that isn't fully used yet. XD anyways. I hope you like it. ~Enjoy

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**~1~**

**Elements, Shadows, Light**

Roxas sat on his bed looking out the window at the thunderstorm raging outside. It was uncommon for there to be such storms in Southern California, but strange weather had been occurring recently. The blonde remembered a few days ago when it had snowed with water spouts seen on the horizon from his window. He had lived in Huntington Beach (**1**) for his whole life and had never seen anything like that before. The weather casters and scientists couldn't explain the random weather patterns that were occurring. According to them, these storms just formed out of nowhere and seemed to be focused on just the Huntington Beach area during the night.

He heard a scream coming from his identical twins room as he felt the ground start to shake. Earthquakes were common in Southern California, but this would be the first one he would have experienced firsthand. The last earthquake that happened in Southern California was during the summer he was visiting his older brother Cloud in New York. The blonde ran to his twins room to see that he was screaming in his sleep and not because he had awaken to an earthquake. He ran over to his brother, Ventus, and shook him awake. The moment Ventus' eyes opened not only did the earthquake stop, but also the storm outside. Their brunette brother, Sora, came running in and jumped on the bed only to hide under the covers shaking. Ventus, Roxas and Sora were triplets, but Ventus and Roxas were also identical twins. (**2**) The two identical twins stared at each other knowing that Ventus had something to with these weird weather patterns and probably the earthquake as well.

Roxas rolled his blue eyes as he went to the window to open it to a now starry clear night without a single cloud in the sky. He looked around to see if their neighbors were awakened by the earthquake, but no one was screaming or panicking like he expected. The light to Ventus' room was turned on as their parents came in asking if they were all okay. The three brothers nodded and asked their parents if the three of them could sleep in the same room for the rest of the night. Their parents agreed that it was a good idea and helped them lay out sleeping bags in the living room. When the three boys were all lying in their sleeping bags, their parents left to return to their master bedroom upstairs. The moment Sora's head hit the pillow he was out like nothing had even happened.

"Roxas…" Ventus whispered softly as he turned to face his twin. "I think I'm causing all these weird things to happen, but I don't know why." Roxas looked at his twin knowing full well that Ventus was probably right. Every time Ventus went to sleep was when all the strange weather would appear. Then there was tonight when he started screaming the earthquake started.

"Maybe you're some kind of superhero," Roxas smiled trying to make his twin feel better. "All you have to do is learn how to control your powers and then you'll be fine." He saw his twin's face light up at the idea of being a superhero from the comic books they read together. Their favorite superhero was Batman, but he didn't have superpowers, just a lot of cool gadgets.

"Then what would my superhero name be?" Ventus asked as he turned to look up at the ceiling. "I can control the weather I guess…probably make earthquakes…neither of those really go together though." He stared at the ceiling as if it would give him the answers he wanted. Roxas turned to stare at the ceiling as well trying to find some kind of relation between earthquakes and storms. They were both things that naturally happened on earth.

"Maybe you can control the elements of the Earth." Roxas concluded. "I mean think about it. They are both things that happen naturally…er… supposed to happen naturally until some little punk called Ven decides to mess with it." They both laughed making Sora mumble something in his sleep and roll onto his left side.

"I guess my superhero name could be Elementum. (**3**)" Ventus said in a deep voice trying to make it sound threatening. Roxas laughed at his twin because it didn't sound like a good superhero name. "What? It means The Element in Latin. I think it works out just fine."

"Elementum?" Roxas snickered, "It sounds like 'eliminate him'. Besides, nobody would know it was Latin. It's a dead language and stupid for that matter."

"It's not stupid!" Ventus argued, "My name means wind in Latin thank you very much."

"And Sora means sky in Japanese," Roxas shrugged, "And my name is from a video game character, big deal. It only proves that our parents are weird like that. I mean, they named our big brother Cloud because the day mom went into labor she saw a cloud in the shape of a baby." Ventus just glared at him like he had insulted the twin bond of trust or something of that matter. Roxas sighed as he rolled his eyes before returning to staring at the ceiling.

"Well at least I have powers." Ventus said trying to rub it in to make his twin feel jealous. Roxas was a little jealous that they were identical twins and only one of them had powers. For all he knew Sora could have powers too that just hadn't awakened yet which led him to wonder if he had some dormant powers inside him. "I'm sorry," he heard his twin say, "I didn't mean to gloat…"

"It's okay," Roxas chuckled, "I shouldn't have made fun of your superhero name. I think I'm just a little jealous is all. You have these amazing powers that can control the elements of the Earth and I have nothing." He heard his twin scoot closer so that their sleeping bags were touching.

"You shouldn't be jealous," Ventus whispered, "because for some reason I get the feeling that your powers are about to awaken as well." He held his twin's hand letting out a soft yawn as he rested his head on his pillow feeling safe with his twin next to him. "Night Roxas…"

"Night Ven (**4**)," Roxas yawned before falling asleep into a dream of shadows. As Roxas dreamed the shadows in the room started to move and take the shape of unknown creatures. These creatures marched slowly to Roxas, fusing together and engulfing the sleeping blonde into the world of shadows.

**~0~**

When Roxas awoke the next morning he was no longer in the living room, but in the garage of someone else's house. He knew that it wasn't his garage because neither of his parents owned a Toyota Prius or a Honda Civic. The blonde looked around trying to figure out how he ended up in someone else's garage and where he was so he could get back home. The faint orange glow of light coming from under garage door meant that it was still too early for the sun to be up and that the people who owned the house were probably still asleep. With a sigh he went to the door that took him outside into the backyard of one of his friend's house. He knew it was Hayner's house because there was no one else he knew that had a backyard with a tether ball (**5**) in it. It was still dark outside, but there was a faint light on the horizon signaling the sun was about to rise. The blonde shook his head before exiting Hayner's backyard and walking the two blocks back to his house. He got to the door of his house only to realize he didn't have his key on him.

"Shit," Roxas groaned as he sat himself on the porch steps. There was no way he was going to get back inside without having to wake someone meaning he would have to try and explain something he couldn't. He thought of his empty sleeping bag next Ventus not noticing he was sinking into the world of shadows once again. When he realized he was sinking into the shadows it was too late and he looked around at a world that was similar, but everything was in black and white while the shadows were a dark purple color. Trying to convince himself he was in a dream, he walked up the steps to his porch and just walked through the door of his house so he could see himself still asleep next to his twin. However, when he got there his sleeping bag was empty with Ventus and Sora still asleep next to him. He looked around at all the purple shadows and touched one to see what would happen. When he touched it his arm disappeared into the purple nothingness. Figuring things couldn't get much worse he jumped into the shadow to find himself back in the world of color with everything normal looking. He turned back to the shadow he had just came out of and poked at it to see his hand disappear back into the shadow.

"What?" Roxas questioned as he pulled his hand out looking at it. "Powers of the shadows?" His powers had finally awakened and he was able to use the shadows to go anywhere he pleased. He went over to his twin to wake him up, but when he touched Ventus he felt something strange happen (**6**). Ventus woke up in a start holding his head with his eyes closed shut. Before Roxas could ask what was wrong he got his answer. A huge storm was now forming outside, but this time it wasn't just lightning and heavy rain. He ran to the window to see long cylinder clouds coming down from the sky. There were now tornadoes forming in Huntington Beach getting ready touchdown and wreak havoc. (**7**) He ran back to his twin placing his hands on Ventus' shoulders.

"Ven!" Roxas yelled, "You have to stop this! Tornadoes are forming and you have to stop before they destroy the city!"

"I can't!" Ventus cried as if he was in pain, "Something is wrong!" He shook his head as tears stained his face before falling to the ground. Roxas glanced out the windows to see the tornadoes disappear, but only to be replaced with a horrible earthquake. He knew it wasn't safe for them to be there so he grabbed Sora's hand and wrapped his other arm around Ventus focusing all his powers on transporting them to the shadow world. Right as the entertainment center was about to crush them, they all disappeared into the world of black and white. Ventus relaxed as he rested his head on Roxas' shoulder panting. The world of shadows didn't contain the elements of the Earth so Ventus' powers didn't work there. It also stopped everything Ventus had unleashed in the real world. Sora yawned as he stretched and rubbed his eyes looking around a bit baffled.

"Ven!" Roxas screamed, "Are you okay?" His twin only nodded clinging to Roxas' shirt trembling. Sora blinked as he looked at his two brothers.

"What happened?" the brunette asked not realizing they were all sitting in the middle of the entertainment center that they should be crushed under.

"I don't know…" Roxas admitted hugging his twin. "All of the sudden Ven lost control of his powers. I think it has something to do with me touching him earlier."

"You two have powers too?" Sora yawned once again. "I thought I was the only one."

"You have powers?" Roxas asked raising a blonde eyebrow. "When did you get them? And why didn't you tell us?" He was surprised that the brunette, not being the smartest of the three, seemed to act like having powers wasn't a big deal at all.

"For like a few days." Sora smiled, "I can control light…kind of…" He looked around at the black and white world of shadows. "Although, there isn't really light here so I can't really show you." Their conversation was interrupted by the sounds of their parents screaming thinking the three of them had been crushed by the entertainment center. Roxas sighed as he took his brothers' hands and took them back to the real world next to the fallen entertainment center. Their mother let out a surprised gasp before running over to hug and kiss them.

The five of them went outside to see nothing but destruction everywhere they looked. Cars were flipped over, parts of houses had collapsed and there were even parts of the street that were ripped apart. Ventus let out a soft moan knowing that this was entirely his fault. Roxas was going to take his twins hand, but didn't when he felt the same strange sensation tingle through his body. The last thing he needed was for Ventus to lose control of his powers again. Sora started running down the street to a house that collapsed.

"Sora!" their mother yelled, "Get back here! It's dangerous!"

"I have to help them!" Sora yelled back, "I know I can." Roxas sighed and followed after his brother knowing that he could probably help the trapped people with his powers as well. The sun was already starting to rise in the east and Sora just stood in front of the collapsed house with his eyes closed. The moment the sun's light hit him he started to glow so bright Roxas had to shield his eyes. Sora stopped glowing with a smile as he started lifting up the heavy rubble of the house like they were pieces of paper. Roxas scowled remembering that Sora told him he could control light, not have sudden super strength. (**8**)

"Wait!" Roxas yelled, "You don't know where they are! If you keep doing that you might make matters worse." The brunette stopped and looked at Roxas with the expression of 'what else could they do?' The blonde shook his head, "I'll travel to the shadow world to and pull them out that way. It is probably safer." Sora thought about it and nodded in agreement.

"But you're taking me with you!" Sora exclaimed. Roxas had no choice but to agree with his stubborn brother. After ten minutes of going through the three houses that collapsed they managed to get everyone out and safe. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt just a bunch of cuts and bruises which seemed more like a miracle after the chaos that just happened. Instead of getting everyone thanking them, everyone just looked at them like there were freaks. However, that is what they were…freaks of the elements, shadows and light.

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**A/N: 1-** Yes I live in Huntington Beach

**2- **Okay, since I've been playing Birth by Sleep over and over again like an idiot. I had to put Ventus in and since I love Sora and Roxas being twins I had to make them triplets.

**3-** My sister is obsessed with Latin so all of them will have Latin names.

**4- **For all of you that have yet to play Birth by Sleep. Everyone calls Ventus Ven. That and he tells every fucking person he meets that too. "Hi my name is Ventus, but call me Ven." God I got sick of hearing that.

**5-** Tether ball consists of a metal pole with a string attaching it with a ball. You hit it around the pole with another person and whoever gets the ball completely around wins. I used to play this all the time in elementary school

**6-** This is another part of Roxas' powers. He can place hexes on people making them have bad luck or if it is another mutant then their powers go crazy. So pretty much everything is Roxas' fault.

**7- **Okay, for all you peoples that don't watch the news. There was a tornado in Huntington Beach/ Sunset Beach okay. See where I got the idea? I almost pissed my pants when I saw that shit. Fuck, I'll have an earthquake any day over a fucking tornado. Us Cali people aren't prepared for such things.

**8-** Okay, so part of Sora's power is he can absorb light from the sun and turn it into some kind of energy. Here he is turning it into super strength, but if he wants he could turn it into beams of light and what not.

So that is it for the footnotes. I know the first chapter is kind of slow and weird, but we'll meet the rest of the gang in the next chapter when they go to the Mickey Institute for gifted youths. Yes, It is call the Mickey Institute, don't get crazy with me okay. I hope you enjoyed it.

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	2. Mickey Institute for Gifted Youths

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters

**A/N:** Okay, so me and my sister have been marathoning X-men Evolution, only the best X-men series ever created. So yeah. This is where most of the inspiration comes from and the rest comes from the storm threatening Southern California. I also kind of listed off the basics of everyone's powers in this chapter except the bad guys which will come in the next chapter probably. Keep in mind that these are just basic descriptions. Also, I do not reveal Zexion's or Kairi's powers because I want to see you all of you can guess it. Neither of them will use their powers until at least the fifth chapter or later. I would also like to see what you think of everyone's powers. I hope you like it. ~Enjoy

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**~2~**

**Mickey Institute for Gifted Youths**

Roxas, Ventus and Sora were in the back seat of the Mercedes E550 that was taking them to their new home. After the incident with Ventus unable to control his powers they were visited by someone named Professor Esaqus and a student of his named Aqua. According to Professor Esaqus the three brothers each contained a mutant gene that gave them each extraordinary powers. The Mickey Institute for Gifted Youths was a school where he could help them learn to control their powers and use them for good. Their parents not knowing what to do with three mutant children agreed to let Professor Esaqus take them to the school to learn to control their powers. It had been a week since Ventus lost control and they were now on the way to the Mickey Institute for Gifted Youths.

Roxas looked out the window and watched as the trees blurred together on street they seemed to have been on forever. The light blue haired girl named Aqua was driving them saying that it wasn't that long of a trip from the airport, but they had already been in the car for over a half an hour. The institute was on the other side of the country somewhere in the state of New York. He wondered if he could visit Cloud since he lived in New York City. His blue eyes watched as they passed through a gate suggesting they had arrived at the institute where they would be staying for a while. He only hoped they wouldn't have to stay here until they graduated high school because he was already missing the nice weather of Southern California. There was snow on the ground and the trees were leafless looking almost dead like. His blue eyes found some other mutants playing in the snow having a snowball fight. There was a dirty blonde mullet haired kid forming snowballs in his hand with nothing. Another looked like an adult with blonde hair and a well kept beard. He seemed to be able to stop the snowballs before they could hit him. There was also a light blue haired boy that had his right half of his face covered by his hair, but he was just sitting on the bench reading a book not even paying attention the snowball fight. The only girl had bright maroon colored hair hiding behind a giant barrier of ice. From Roxas could see she didn't seem to have any powers, but knew she probably had them. The last person had even brighter red hair that was spiked like a flame. Although the thing that really caught Roxas' eye was the emerald green eyes the red head had. He watched as any snowball that tried to hit him and the girl melted in flames the red haired male created. However he noticed that they all still kept their distance from the maroon haired girl.

"Whoa!" Sora gawked as he crawled across Ventus and onto Roxas to get a better look at the mutant snowball fight. He pressed his face against the window as he watched with such an interest like it didn't matter that they were now miles away from their home. Roxas growled as he pushed the brunette off of him shooting him a glare.

"What is your problem?" Roxas demanded, "You can look all you want when we get out the car." Sora pouted as he sat back down in his seat not liking Roxas yelling at him. Ventus just sat there in silence still not quite over everything that had happened a week ago. Even though Professor Eraqus said that he erased everyone's memories of knowing they were mutants it seemed Ventus couldn't forgive himself for all the destruction he caused. Roxas nudged his twin with a smile.

"Hey," Roxas smiled, "Cheer up Ven. We are going to learn to use our powers for good here. That way we can help people and stop other mutants who use their powers for evil. Kind of like the X-men. You could be like Storm." Ventus gave his twin a smile as he nodded liking the idea of being like Storm.

"Storm is one of the extremely powerful mutants from the X-men." Ventus laughed, "But I don't know if I could wear her outfit. I'm not a girl after all."

"I'd be like Sunspot!" Sora exclaimed happily. Ventus and Sora look at Roxas trying to figure out who he would be from the X-men. Roxas just shrugged not being able to really come up with anyone with similar powers to his. The car came to a stop and Aqua got out expecting the three boys to do the same. The three brothers got out and looked up at the beautiful glass entrance of the institute.

"Come on," Aqua smiled signaling them to follow after her. They walked carefully up the snow covered steps into the lobby of school and followed the girl down a hallway passing a living room, a kitchen, a library and what looked like a classroom. She stopped at two large wooden doors painted a soft auburn color with two key shaped doorknobs. When she opened the doors a small office was revealed with Professor Esaqus sitting behind the desk working on some papers. He stopped to look up and smiled at them.

"Come in Ventus, Roxas, Sora," Professor Esaqus smiled waving his hand at the three empty chairs in front of his desk. Aqua gave the professor a slight nod before taking her leave and closing the doors behind her. There was a moment of silence as the professor put his papers off to the side then looked at each of the brothers.

"Now," Professor Eraqus started, "Tomorrow you will be attending Atlantica High School. Your transfer papers have already all gone through, but I must advise you that his high school doesn't consist of all mutants. So while you are here at the institute you are permitted to use your powers, but at school it is strictly prohibited unless someone is in danger. Do I make myself clear?" The three brothers nodded in unison wanting to look around the institute instead of being lectured on the rules. "I'm going to have Axel and Kairi show you around your new home. I hope you enjoy your stay here with us." The doors behind them opened and the spiked red head appeared with the maroon haired girl behind him.

"Come on guys," Axel said, "let me show you around." The three brothers got out of their chairs and exited the room following the two red haired people in front of them. "Name's Axel. Got it memorized?" The spiked red head said taking one finger and tapping his temple. Roxas looked up and noticed that Axel had two upside down teardrop tattoos on his face wondering why he had them.

"My name is Kairi," The maroon haired girl smiled skipping backwards skillfully. "I'm Axel's little sister. You three are triplets right?" They all just nodded which caused her to giggle. "You three are shy now but don't worry. Everyone here is really friendly and you'll have some classes with me and Zexion at school."

"Where is the kitchen?" Sora asked frowning as his stomach grumbled, "I'm really hungry after the long trip here from California." Roxas punched his brother's shoulder for being rude which caused Sora to give Roxas a pout. Kairi just laughed as she stopped and pointed at the kitchen they had passed earlier. As Sora darted into the kitchen to raid the fridge Roxas just stared at the red haired male unable to look away. Ventus had followed Kairi and Sora into the kitchen dragging Roxas in with them.

"Sora!" Ventus yelled, "Don't just take anything you want. That is just rude." Axel came in last laughing at the brunette that had taken out a cake and was already slicing out a large piece for him.

"It's okay," Axel smiled, "Everything in the kitchen is for everyone that lives here. Feel free to raid it whenever you want." Sora mouthed 'score' as he devoured the large piece of chocolate cake in just a few bites not even thinking about manners. He then proceeded to pour himself a glass of milk to wash it down. Roxas sighed as he just shook his head wondering how anyone in this place was going to tolerate Sora, but it seemed that Axel and Kairi didn't mind.

"Come on Sora," Roxas insisted, "You come back here and shove your face full of food once we're done with the tour." He went through the cabinets and found a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and handed them to Sora, "Here, this should last you through the tour okay." Sora nodded happily taking the chips and already starting to devour them as well.

"Ready to see the rest of the place?" Axel asked starting to leave the kitchen with Kairi following behind him. Kairi and Axel showed the triplets the living room, classroom, library, computer lab, gym and art room. While they were taking the tour they met everyone else that lived here as well. According to Axel and Kairi, along with Professor Eraqus there were three other professors that helped train the students here. One was Xaldin, a tall black haired man pulled back into a ponytail of dreadlocks with the powers to create electric charged spikes and control over the wind. The second was the blonde man that they saw playing with Axel, Kairi and the others. His name was Luxord and his powers were the control of illusions and time. The last one was Lexaeus the huge silent brunette with superhuman strength.

Then the met the rest of the students, all of them were in the living room watching Final Destination 3. There was another red haired teen, but had his hair pulled back into a pony tail. His name was Reno and was Axel's twin brother with the power of super speed. He was sitting next to a large bald man with tan skin named Rude with the powers of turning his body completely metal. Then there was Aqua, the bluenette that picked them up from the airport with the power of acidic touch. Next to Aqua sat a blonde girl named Namine that had the power to see the future and draw anything to life. Off in the very corner of the room sat the dirty blonde mullet teen named Demyx and the bluenette with the hair over his right eye named Zexion. Demyx's powers consisted of control over water and according to Axel and Kairi, no one knew what Zexion's powers were. It was said that when he got his powers he accidently killed his parents and swore never to use them again. Axel said that he just sits there and reads all the time allowing no one but Demyx to sit next to him. Axel said he had control over fire, but they never talked about Kairi's powers.

After they showed them the lower levels and met everyone, they went up stairs to where everyone's room was. Of course Roxas, Ventus and Sora all had rooms next to each other with Ventus' room being in the middle.

"Well that's the grand tour of the place." The red haired male said with a grin. "You should come down to the living room and watch Final Destination 3 with us."

"If you need anything feel free to ask any of us." Kairi smiled. Sora bounced up and down with his hand in the air like a kid in elementary school with a question. "Yes Sora?"

"So we know everyone's powers but yours." Sora stated, "What are your powers Kairi?" The maroon haired girl just smiled and put a finger to her lips.

"It's a secret," Kairi whispered with a wink before skipping off with her brother next to her. The three brothers looked at each other all wondering what kind of powers the girl could have.

"Well," Sora grinned, "I'm going to get more food from the kitchen and join them to watch the movie." Ventus and Roxas just looked at their brother wondering where the brunette put it all. Sora waved as he ran down the hall and disappeared down the stairs. Again, the twins exchanged worried glances knowing full well that Sora was going to have nightmares after the movie. That meant that Sora was going to drag both of them into his room so he wouldn't feel scared.

"Well," Roxas sighed, "Should we go join them and keep an eye on Sora?"

"Yeah," Ventus chuckled, "He's going to need one of us or both of us to cling onto." The twins laughed as they went down to the living room sitting next to Sora so he was in the middle. As they predicted Sora was scared and by the end of the movie asked both of them to sleep in his room. Being extremely close as triplets they agreed and placed all their sleeping bags on the Sora's floor. The three brothers fell asleep ending their first day at the Mickey Institute for Gifted Youths.

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**A/N:** Okay, no footnotes! yaya! Anyways, please tell me what you think of everyone's powers and try to guess Zexion's and Kairi's powers. XD

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	3. Just Silence

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters

**A/N:** Okay, since I'm at a standstill with my two other stories I have been working on this one. Anyways, there are a bunch of footnotes towards the end of this. They are more just my comments, but they are also pointing out hints about Zexion's and Kairi's powers. See if you can try to guess them. XD I hope you like the chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~3~**

**Just Silence**

Roxas awoke the next morning with Sora's foot in his face and Ventus drooling all over his shirt. He rolled his eyes as he disappeared into the shadow world to get away from them without waking them up. When he reappeared in the real world he let out a soft groan realizing his shirt was still wet from his twin's drool. None of the rooms had their own bathrooms, but for every four bedrooms there was a bathroom so he figured since Ventus and Sora were still asleep he would have a better chance of using the bathroom first. He went to his room to grab his clothes, towel, washcloth and toothbrush. However, when he got to the closest bathroom it was locked meaning someone was using it.

"I'll be right out," a girl's voice said from the other side of the door. Roxas heard the flush of the toilet as the blonde haired girl named Namine came out. She gave him a soft smile and Roxas couldn't help but notice that she looked like she was already changed for school. The girl was wearing a white spaghetti strapped sundress with white flats. He wondered how she could keep anything white because Roxas knew he couldn't. "So you're…umm…" Namine frowned trying to remember which of the three he was.

"Roxas," the blonde male said with a smile. "Don't worry; everyone mixes the three of us up all the time even our parents do it every so often."

"How funny," Namine giggled. "I'm also a freshman, but I don't have any classes with you. I hope you don't have too much of a disaster today on your first day of school." She skipped down the hall and waved goodbye as she opened the door to the room right next to his. He waved back watching her disappear into her room before entering the bathroom and locking the door. Axel and Kairi had told him that part of her powers were to predict the future meaning that something was most likely going to happen today. With a sigh Roxas got ready for school and when he was finished proceeded to wake his brothers up.

"Hey," Roxas shouted, "Get up you two! Today is our first day at our new school. You two don't want to be late do you?" He watch his twin roll over to look at the clock that read 6:45 letting out a sigh as he got up to get ready for school. Sora just grumbled something and put his pillow over his head just like every morning. The blonde rolled his eyes as he stuck both fingers in his mouth then stuck them in Sora's ears giving the brunette a wet willy. The brunette woke with a scream throwing his pillow at his brother in anger.

"Okay, Okay!" Sora pouted, "I'm up!" Roxas knew from years of experience that it was the only way to wake the brunette because he could sleep through almost anything. He laughed leaving the room so Sora could get ready. On his way to the kitchen for breakfast, the blonde saw his twin enter the bathroom. When he got to the kitchen there already a bunch of people there some still in their pajamas and some already dressed for school. The ones he recognized and remembered their names were Namine, Axel, Kairi and Zexion. He didn't know why he remembered Zexion's name, but he did. Zexion was sitting at the table eating Honey-nut Cheerios reading a book already ready for school. Axel was yelling at his twin, Reno, with Kairi standing there as if supervising they don't use their powers on each other. Namine was sitting across from Zexion eating Honey-nut Cheerios with chopped strawberries. The last person that was in the kitchen was the large bald tan guy, Rude, that was sitting down at the table eating some kind of cereal that Roxas couldn't see because of the newspaper he was reading. Roxas walked over to the cabinets to see what other cereal they had and ended grabbing Captain Crunch along with a bowl and the milk.

"Hey kid," Axel smiled as Reno walked away to sit by Rude. "The three of you sleep okay last night after the movie?" Everyone knew that Sora was scared shitless after the movie thanks to him putting on a huge scene. Of course, Ventus and Roxas were expecting in and promised to sleep in his room so 'death' would try to kill him. They told him it would be okay since they had powers 'death' wouldn't be able to touch them.

"Yeah," Roxas sighed pouring the Captain Crunch into the bowl followed shortly by the milk. "Sora was the only one that was scared, but we all slept in his room last night so he felt better." He closed the box to the Captain Crunch and put it away. Then he opened the fridge to put the milk away as well.

"You're Roxas right?" the spiky red head asked.

"Yeah," the blonde nodded, "Ventus is my identical twin. How are you able to tell us apart? Everyone always mixes us up, even our parents." The blonde raised a question eyebrow only getting a grin from Axel instead of an answer. "Let me guess. It's a secret like your sister's powers right? Do you even know your sister's powers?"

"Of course I know her powers," Axel laughed, "What kind of older brother would I be if I didn't know her powers?" The spiked red head was about to walk away when he froze and turned back to Roxas. "Oh yeah, you three are riding with me and Kairi to school today. We'll meet you and your brothers outside at 7:20. Got it memorized?" His finger tapped his temple as he was saying the last question.

"Yeah, yeah," Roxas frowned rolling his eyes. "I got it memorized." He watched as Axel left the kitchen while Kairi went to go sit next to Namine to giggle about something. Roxas sighed as he sat down at the table a few chair away from Zexion. He remembered Axel telling them that the bluenette only let the mullet person sit next to him. When he took a bite of his Captain Crunch he heard Ventus and Sora come into the kitchen laughing about something. They grabbed some Captain Crunch too before sitting down next to Roxas. As bad as Sora was to get up in the morning, once he was up he had endless energy kind of like his powers in a way.

When the three of them finished their breakfast they washed their dishes and then went back to their rooms to grab their backpacks. Their backpacks already had school supplies and their schedules in them so on their way down to meet Axel and Kairi they compared their schedules. Sadly, none of them had the same classes because Sora wasn't in the advanced courses that Roxas were in so it didn't really surprise him that much. Ventus was only taking advanced English, but even with his regular classes he didn't share any of them with Sora.

"I bet they did this on purpose," Sora pouted as they walked downstairs into the lobby. "They made sure to separate us so they wouldn't have trouble telling us apart."

"Look on the bright side Sora," Ventus grinned, "We can switch classes so you can do my science class and I can do your math class. Look!" he pointed at their schedules, "We have math and science the same period, but with different teachers so we can totally pull it off." Sora and Ventus both got a mischievous twinkle in their eye as they plotted to switch classes for the rest of the year. Roxas just shook his head knowing that they will probably get caught and would regret it later. They opened the large glass door that led outside to where Axel and Kairi were waiting in a bright red Lexus IS F. (**1**)

"Come on you three," Axel shouted through the passenger window, "Everyone else already left. Unless you want to be late for your first day of school." The three brothers got into the back of the car with Roxas on the driver's side, Sora in the middle and Ventus on the passenger side. They listened to Lady Gaga the entire way their complements of Kairi and her current obsession with Lady Gaga. By the time they reached the school twenty minutes later Roxas had 'Bad Romance' (**2**) stuck in his head and had a feeling it would stay stuck in his head for the rest of the day. Axel pulled up to the curb to let the four passengers out before driving into the school parking lot to park his car.

"Oh," Kairi smiled, "Namine said to be careful today. She saw all three of you getting into trouble, but you can always change the future." With that said she skipped off into the school and disappeared into the crowd of students. The three brothers looked at each other before going into the school as well to find their lockers and first class. Thankfully their lockers were all next to each other, but the only bad thing was that Roxas' classes were all really far from his locker. He figured it was because he was taking advanced classes. He got to his first class of Geometry Honors and noticed that Zexion was also in his class. It didn't surprise him since he always seemed to be reading so of course he would be in advanced classes. To his surprise Zexion was in all his classes and yet never said a word to anyone, even when the teacher called on him. '_So Axel wasn't kidding when he said Zexion never talked to anyone._' (**3**) Roxas thought to himself wondering what the bluenette's powers could be.

After school he went to his locker to see Sora being pushed into his by a silver haired boy and a spiky haired brunette both looked older (**4**). The two laughed as they walked away leaving Sora locked his own locker. Roxas sighed as he looked around before sinking into the shadows to get into Sora's locker and pull him out. When they were back in the real world out of Sora's locker the hallway had already seemed to be cleared out.

"Why do you let people do that to you?" Roxas frowned at his brother getting his stuff out of his locker.

"I didn't think they were going to do that." Sora sighed closing his locker. "Too bad I don't have the shadow powers because I would have had to blow the door off the locker if you didn't come by." (**5**)

"Come on," Roxas sighed walking with his brother towards the exit of the school when they felt an earthquake. '_In New York State?'_ Roxas thought to himself, '_Ventus'_ He grabbed his brother and ran outside to the soccer field where the two males from earlier were causing problems for Ventus.

"Stop it!" Ventus yelled, "You're going to hurt someone if you keep causing earthquakes like that!" The earthquake stopped as Ventus focused his powers to keep the ground still. Roxas looked at the two figuring they were both mutants as well and one of them had similar powers to Ventus.

"Leave him alone!" Roxas and Sora shouted at the same time running over to stand by their brother's side. Sora started absorbing the sun's light getting ready to blast the jerks for messing with his brother. He didn't mind when people were mean to him but the moment someone messed with his friends or family it was on. Roxas could feel a weird tingling feeling in his fingers like the time he touched Ventus making his powers go crazy.

"Oh look Riku," the spiky brunette laughed, "They think they can stop us." The silver haired boy named Riku laughed.

"They look they are still learning," Riku smirked, "Come one Terra. Let's teach these brats a lesson." The spiky brunette nodded as he closed his eyes making the ground start to shake again.

"Oh no you don't!" Ventus shouted focusing his powers on stopping Terra. Riku moved his hand sending Ventus flying backwards with telekinetic powers. Before either Sora or Roxas could make a move Kairi and Axel walked between them making the earthquake stop the moment they set foot on the soccer field. (**6**)

"Stop this," Kairi glared at Riku and Terra. Riku and Terra just frowned as they left not even daring to challenge Kairi as if her powers were something to be feared. Roxas and Sora were helping Ventus up when Kairi walked over to them with a frown. "Didn't I tell you Namine's warning? There are other mutants that attend this school that don't go to the institute and use their powers for evil. You have to be cautious. What if someone saw you?"

"Chill Kai," Axel said placing a hand on her shoulder, "it was their first day. Anyways, Ventus was only trying to stop the earthquake caused by Terra. Roxas and Sora were only defending their brother it's not like they used their powers yet." Kairi's angry expression disappeared as she nodded agreeing with her older brother. Axel smiled, "Come on you three, let's get back to the institute and forget about the after school incident."

"I'm sorry," Kairi whispered looking down at the ground. "It's just we've been here for a long time without anyone finding out our secret. It scares me thinking of the way people treat us when they learn our secret." Axel wrapped an arm around his little sister with a smile.

"Don't worry Kai," Axel grinned, "Nothing like that will happen. Professor Eraqus makes sure of that."

"So what are your powers Kairi?" Sora blurted out really wanting to know why the two ran away as if scared of her. "Those two jerks didn't even seem to bother trying to go against you. You must be pretty powerful if they just run away like that." Kairi just giggled giving Sora a wink.

"I told you," the maroon haired girl giggled some more. "It's a secret. If too many people knew of my powers it would be bad so we keep it on a low key. Same goes for Zexion as well."

"Wait!" Axel stopped looking at his sister with shock. "You know Zexion's powers? Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's a secret," Kairi smiled. "Besides, Zexion only told me when we were talking to Professor Eraqus one time."

"He talks?" the spiky red head asked with a questioning look.

"Yes," Kairi giggled, "He talks when I am in the room." (**7**)

"He doesn't like you, does he?" Axel frowned not seeming to like the idea of his sister dating Zexion. Kairi shook her head letting her maroon colored hair catch the wind.

"No," Kairi smiled, "He likes someone else, but he's afraid to tell that person."

"It's Demyx," Ventus blurted out. He figured that the bluenette had to like Demyx since he was the only one the bluenette didn't seem to hate.

"Yes," Kairi sighed, "but don't tell Demyx or else Zexion will get really mad at me. I am trying to get him talk to everyone, but he really is stubborn. He is really afraid of his powers because of what happened when his powers awakened." They arrived at Axel's car and got in with Kairi sitting in the same order they had that morning. The maroon haired girl looked down at her hands like she was sad thinking about Zexion being afraid of his powers. The entire ride back to the institute there was nothing but silence. Not even the radio was turned on only adding to silence…just silence.

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**A/N: 1-** Okay, So this is my dream car. It is so sexy. *drools* yeah....

**2-** Okay, me and my sister are obsessed with this song okay. We are also obsessed with just Lady Gaga in general.

**3-** Hint. XD

**4-** Yes, Riku and Terra are bad guys for now. For now...

**5-** Okay, so another part of Sora's power is that he can generate blast of energy without the sun's light. He can also create little bombs of energy that can be turned into something like fireworks.

**6-** Hint! XD

**7-** Hint! XD


	4. There Ain't No Diaries in Football!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters.

**A/N:** Okay, sorry it took so long, but I am working on two stories right now. The third one I am at a standstill with, but whatever. Not only that, but school is starting to pick up and I had to write two papers over the weekend so until spring break it might take a couple days to update. Also, I just started my new job so I'll have less time between working and going to school, but I will try my best to update as much as possible. I hope you like the chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~4~**

**There Ain't No Diaries in Football**

A week had gone by since the run in with Terra and Riku at school. Roxas had asked Kairi and Axel what other mutants attended Atlantica High School that weren't living at the institute. Kairi told him that there were at least six other mutants that they knew of, not including Riku and Terra. She told him that there were at least ten mutants per school with Atlantica being one of the exceptions for obvious reasons. This led Sora to ask why all the mutants didn't come to the institute to learn how to use their powers. The answer they got was that it was impossible to get every mutant to come here and still keep it secret from the world. There were a select few people that knew about mutants and their powers, but for the most part the majority of the people didn't know. According to Professor Eraqus, it wasn't time for the general public to know about their powers because they weren't ready to understand. This made Roxas, Sora and Ventus think about when everyone in their neighborhood found out about them. They were looked at like some kind of abomination.

Roxas looked out his window at Axel, Reno and Kairi all throwing snowballs at each other thinking about what would happen when the world found out. He remembered the X-men movies where people hated them just because they had these powers. It wasn't like they wanted them and got them like someone would a tattoo. No, they were born like this and there was nothing they could do to change it. He glanced down at the three siblings once again to see Axel waving up at him with a huge dorky smile on his face. There was a sudden blood rush to his facing as he looked away wondering why he was blushing just from looking at the green eyed red head. He remembered when they were in a training session and the blonde had accidently hexed everyone with one of his powers. According to Professor Eraqus, Roxas was able to shoot little rays of bad luck to people or he just needed to touch them. Of course, if he did it to a mutant then their powers would go on the fritz and caused a great deal of damage, at least to the training room this time. It was the reason why Ventus couldn't control his powers even when he was awake making Roxas realize that the whole mess was his fault and not Ventus'. There was a soft knock on the door making the blonde look over in that direction wondering who it could be. He knew for a fact it wasn't Sora or Ventus because neither of them knocked.

"Who is it?" Roxas asked not moving from his seat by the window now realizing the three red haired sibling were now gone. He felt a little sad that he couldn't watch Axel play in the snow anymore wishing he liked the snow more.

"Axel" A deep voice replied making the blonde wonder if he had fallen asleep. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Roxas said turning his attention to the door as it opened to reveal the red head he had been watching only minutes before. One would expect Axel to be soaking wet from the recent snowball fight, but he was dry as if not a single snowball had hit him. The blonde knew it was because of the red head's powers and wondered why he didn't use it during the snowball fight instead after. He didn't realize he was just staring at Axel until he heard him clear his throat.

"So," Axel said scratching the back of his head like he was nervous or something. Though, after the fiasco that happened Wednesday during the training session. A blush formed across the younger male's face remembering that it ended with the red head somehow on top of him. Not that the blonde minded, but it did make it really awkward when everyone got hold of their powers and saw them. His blue eyes glanced over at the red head now sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Did you have a fun snowball fight?" Roxas asked wanting to rid the room of the awkward silence. If there was anything the blonde hated, it was the awkward silence. He couldn't ever explain why he hated it so much, but he just knew he did. There was a soft chuckle that came from Axel as he smiled at the blonde.

"Yeah," Axel grinned, "You should totally come join us sometime."

"I'd rather not," Roxas frowned, glancing back out the window. He hated the snow, not as much as awkward silence, but enough to know that he didn't want to be in the snow if he didn't need to. It was not something that Southern Californians were used to especially the ones that lived by the beach. Roxas and Ventus were more the surfing and skateboarding and stayed by the beach during the winter even if the waters were freezing cold. It seemed only Sora was enjoying the snow, but then again, he did go snowboarding with his friends, Donald and Goofy, almost every winter break. This made him wonder why they called Sora's friends by their last names instead of their first. Come to think of it, the blonde didn't even know their first names only that one looked like a duck and the other like a stupid dog or something.

"Why not Roxie?" Axel pouted wishing Roxas wouldn't just sit out like Zexion always did. Roxas shot the red head a glare not wanting to be called by the stupid nickname that everyone seemed to use now. It was all Axel's fault and had also started on Wednesday.

"Don't call me that." The blonde spit out in anger. "If you do I'll make sure you won't be able to use your powers for a week." This threat only caused Axel to laugh and Roxas knew why. Roxas only had some control over his powers and that didn't include his hexing powers. Sure shadow travel was easier, but it seemed he could only use his powers when in danger or not awake yet or when his brothers were in danger. Why? He didn't know, but Axel had told him that after some training he could use his powers whenever he pleased. Thinking of the red head he looked back at him still laughing.

"Maybe in a year or two." The red head snickered, "Besides, if you did that I would burn everything to the ground. Would you like sleeping in the snow?" Axel raised an eyebrow knowing full well that Roxas hated the snow saying he was from Southern California and the two don't mix, unless you were Sora. The blonde shot another glare towards the red head trying to determine the reasoning for him being there.

"Why are you here?" Roxas seethed at the still snickering Axel. He didn't know why, but the two of them had become pretty good friends even with all the arguing they seemed to do. Both of their siblings said they acted like a married couple making Axel laugh and the blonde blush. Sometimes he really hated his brothers and that was one of those times.

"We are all going to go play a game of football," Axel grinned, "Mutant Style. I came to ask if you wanted to join us."

"If it is outside then no," Roxas retorted almost shivering at the thought.

"Come on," Axel pleaded no getting up to stand next to the sitting blonde. "Everyone is going to play! Kairi even convinced Zexion to join in!" Roxas frowned wondering how the maroon haired girl was able to convince even Zexion to play the stupid game in the snow.

"Why?" The blonde asked raising a questioning eyebrow "Is her powers to convince anyone to do anything or something? If so, why don't you send her in here?"

"That isn't her powers silly," the red head laughed patting the blonde on the head. "It's just one of her charms. Namine can do it too if she really wants to. I guess it's a power that girls are given or something." Roxas frowned as he thought back to the girlfriend he left behind knowing she was kind of like that too. He kind of wished Olette was a mutant so they could still be together, but after her seeing what he could do he doubted that she would still like him.

"Then what are her powers?" Roxas asked getting a little annoyed that only Kairi's and Zexion's powers were a secret. Of course, he got the same reaction every time.

"It's a secret," Axel grinned. "But you should come play some football with us regardless! Even the teachers are playing and Professor Eraqus is going to be the ref! If you don't play we're going to have uneven teams!"

"Oh heaven forbid you have uneven teams." Roxas said dripping in sarcasm and rolling his eyes. The red head swore like Zexion wouldn't sit out like he always did.

"Please Roxie," the red head begged, "Don't make me drag you out there because I will." Roxas shot Axel another glare because one, he didn't like to be called Roxie and two; he didn't like the idea of being dragged outside.

"You really want to be hexed." The blonde frowned, "I'm sure my powers will make an exception just for you." He just saw the red head grin as picked him up and threw him over his shoulder as if he was a pillow or backpack.

"You're going to play whether you like it or not." Axel chuckled at the now struggling Roxas.

"Put me down!" Roxas screamed trashing like a fish out of water. He really wished he had control over his hexing powers at this moment so he could hex the red head so badly he wouldn't even be able to sit down. Then there was the fact that he wasn't even properly changed to go outside into the bitter cold of New York. Why his brother Cloud chose to live here, he would never know.

"Nope," the red head laughed, "You're going to play! Don't worry, if you stay close to me you won't be cold."

"How is that going to make me feel any better?" the blonde pouted finally giving up the struggle knowing that it was futile from the start. Everyone knew that the green eyed red head had control over fire, but it also meant that he could warm the area around him and it naturally made him warm all the time. Just touching the red head made Roxas feel like he was on fire, but he only assumed it was because of Axel's powers.

"Well, for one thing," Axel paused for a bit, "You're on my time and my team always wins regardless of who is on my team. Second, you won't even feel cold and have lots of fun!" the blonde just rolled his eyes hoping that the stupid football game would be over quickly.

"Have I told you I hated you today yet?" Roxas mumbled as they entered the lobby getting closer and closer to the entrance to hell known as outside.

"You don't hate me Roxie," the red head beamed as he opened the front door, but there was never a cold rush of wind. Roxas knew that the moment Axel put him down and walked away he would be freezing. The stupid red head didn't even let him get properly changed and now he was sure that he was going to freeze into a Roxas-sicle. Axel carried Roxas all the way to the football field and set him down seeming proud that he got the blonde outside. Before Roxas could yell at him there was a gust of wind around him and the next thing he knew he was wearing all his snow gear.

"Good job bro!" Axel grinned as he high-fived his twin brother, Reno. The blonde knew that if the two wanted to take over the world, they probably could. As stupid as they acted sometimes, they were both really smart when they needed to be.

"No problem, yo!" Reno grinned back, "You ready to get beat this time?" There seemed to be a sudden spark that ignited the flame of sibling rivalry, something Roxas knew very well. He looked over at the teams and realized that both his brothers were on his team. The team captains were probably Reno and Axel from the way they were bickering. Axel's team consisted of Kairi, Demyx, Zexion and the triplets. Reno's team had the three professors, Xaldin, Luxord, Lexaeus and the rest of the students, Rude, Namine and Aqua. It didn't seem like a fair line up, but still Axel didn't think he would lose. Professor Eraqus was standing on the sidelines to act as the ref for the game. Roxas figured it was a good idea because no one would go against any of his calls.

"You know that you never win," Axel smirked seeming pretty confident that they were going to win. Roxas just called it cockiness because there was no way they were going to win this game.

"Yeah?" Reno grinned putting his hands on his hips, "how do you expect to win with a bunch of newbies on your team?"

"Just because their new doesn't mean they can't wipe the floor with you." Axel grinned. The red haired twins were now nose to nose. Roxas could almost feel the heat of the rivalry just by standing next to them and wondered if it was just Axel's powers again.

"Come one you two," The blonde said rolling his eyes, "Let's just get this game over with. You two can bicker after the game." Reno and Axel both nodded in agreement and walked away to go join their teams. Roxas had no choice but to follow the green eyed red head to the side their team was on noticing that it wasn't as cold as he expected it to be. Either his brother was getting better at controlling the elements, he doubted it, or Axel really knew how to warm the air around him. It seemed that Ventus could only do simple things with his powers, but at least natural disasters weren't happening every time he went to sleep. Sora seemed to be the one adjusting to his powers the easiest, but every so often he would absorb too much sunlight and have the energy blow up in his face. How the brunette never hurt himself? It would remain a mystery. Roxas pulled out a little notepad that he always kept on him to write things down. With Kairi and Zexion playing he might be able to figure out what their powers are. He would keep a close eye on them instead of the game since football held not interest for him.

"There ain't no diaries in football!" Axel yelled as he took the notepad away only to burn it in the palm of his hand. Roxas gave the pyro red head the worst of glared debating on whether to just stand there for the entire game or actually play. In the end, he ended up playing and having fun for the first time since he had arrived at the institute. Somehow Axel's team actually won and the blonde wondered if it had to do with Zexion. Even though the bluenette didn't really play, Roxas had the feeling that he was secretly using his powers.

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**A/N:** Okay, for all of you that want to know Zexion's powers I have a feeling that is coming up in the next chapter. Also, I added in some notes about the triplets starting to learn to control their powers, but they are still having problems. Especially poor Ventus...I don't know why but it seems I pick on the poor kid. Anyways, I get the feeling that Sora would be able to learn quickly unlike his brothers. So yeah, poor Roxas has to try and not hex people when he touches them. haha, it would make for a great chapter and maybe it might be the next one meaning you will have to wait until chapter six to learn Zexi's powers. I'm still debating though. Hehe.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	5. Curse

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long to update, but I made the choice to write one chapter for 'The HeX Factor' then write one chapter for 'The Other Side of Sandpaper' meaning I'm going back and forth. Again, I just started my new job and school is starting to pick up the pace. Thankfully I have gaps here and there during school so I can work on the stories, but my time is still limited. On a lighter note, I chose to have Zexion use both of his powers, but only one is really shown. So yeah. I hope you like the chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~5~**

**Curse**

Roxas woke up in the morning to find himself outside sleeping in the snow and cold. His powers were taking him places again when he was sleeping, but at least they weren't causing natural disasters like his brother. With a yawn and a stretch he looked around to see that he was not on institute property, but at school in the middle of the football field. He found it weird that he would end up there considering he had just come to like the sport after being forced to play it with everyone. Shaking his head he sunk back into the shadows to make his way back to the institute. The funny thing about shadow travel was that even though it seemed to take the same time to get from point A to point B in reality he would actually arrived there much quicker. Of course, that was if his powers were in the mood to listen and they seemed to be now since he wasn't completely up yet. He walked out of the shadows and plopped down on his bed not wanting to go to school today. Closing his eyes, he lies there figuring he could get another ten minutes of sleep before having to get ready. Unfortunately, that's when someone decided to burst into his room. He looked up expecting to see either Ventus or Sora, but instead it was Namine.

"What do you want?" Roxas growled angry that it wasn't one of his brothers. He would expect this from his brothers, but not from anyone else he was living with especially considering he still didn't know them that well. Granted, none of them seemed to care and considered everyone part of the family. Axel was probably the worst because the crazy red head always came waltzing in whenever he wanted to. He heard the blonde girl say something, but he didn't care placing his pillow over his head hoping it would tell her to go away. The pillow was removed forcefully followed by a slap on the back of the head.

"You need to listen!" Namine yelled. "You really need to be extremely careful at school today. If your powers start to go crazy then find Kairi or Zexion. They'll be able to help." Roxas just turned his head to look up at her like she was crazy. Then he remembered that she could see the future and if she was giving him a warning, it wasn't something to take lightly.

"Why?" the blonde boy groaned. "What did you see?"

"I can't tell you the exact details…" The blonde girl sighed, "I can only give warnings…but it will be bad… Zexion is in all of your classes so try to stay somewhere close to him." Roxas knew that there were limits to powers and figured her telling what she saw was one of her limits. He wasn't going to push her even though he wanted to know what he was going to do that caused her to burst into his room. Whatever it was, it wasn't good because she suggested that he go to Zexion and Kairi. This led him to really wonder what their powers were if they could stop whatever disaster he was going to cause.

"Fine…" Roxas grumbled not even wanting to go to school anymore.

"Promise me you'll stay with Zexion." Namine said looking extremely serious as if he was going to cause the end of the world. He had always thought that would be Ventus' job, but then again he could be wrong. What horrible disaster could shadow powers cause?

"I will," Roxas promised, "We have the same classes, it shouldn't be too hard." She seemed to take this as his agreement and left the room as quickly as she came. The blonde let out a frustrated sigh as he got out of his bed to get ready. When he was ready Axel drove them to school and dropped them off in the front before he went to park. Sora looked over at Roxas with a frown knowing something was bothering him.

"What's wrong?" the brunette frowned making sure Roxas didn't try to lie to him.

"Namine…" Roxas sighed remembering the warning she gave him that morning. "She said that I had to be careful today. It was as if I was going to cause the end of the world or something."

"That's my job," Ventus joked tackling his brother. "Only I'm allowed to cause natural disasters like that." Roxas laughed at his brother's joke knowing that it probably was true, but many powers could cause just as much damage.

"Don't worry Roxas," Kairi smiled. "Zexion and I will keep an eye on you and your powers. These things happen a lot when you're still learning to control them."

"What are your powers?" Roxas asked. "You and Zexion must be pretty powerful if you can stop uncontrolled powers."

"I guess," Kairi shrugged. "Zexion is pretty powerful, but mine are just whatever really. Although, every power has its limits so try to control your powers as much as possible so Zexion doesn't get tired. He is extremely powerful, but his powers take a great deal of energy and he is still learning as well."

"I'll try," Roxas frowned wondering why Kairi, Zexion and Namine seem to be the peace keepers of everyone's powers or something. The maroon haired girl smiled before waving goodbye and taking off to the entrance of the school. Roxas let out as sigh kind of wishing that it was Ventus or Sora going to cause trouble today at school. Then again, he had just discovered that he was actually the cause of Ventus losing control of his powers. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the bluenette watching him like a hawk would its prey. He felt someone slap his back and turned to see it was his brunette brother with his usual Disney movie smile.

"Don't worry." Sora beamed, "Namine saw that you were going to have a bad day so she gave you a warning. Then you have Kairi and Zexion watching your back and they've done this before." Sometimes Roxas wondered if his brother jumped out of a Disney movie because he was always so optimistic.

"I guess," Roxas sighed shifting a bit as his backpack started to slide off his shoulder. "I'll see you guys at lunch I'm going to get to class." His brothers nodded as he left them standing there hoping that everything was going to be fine today. Zexion seemed to follow him into the classroom watching him to make sure nothing happened. Throughout the day Zexion seemed to be mumbling things to himself. Granted, Roxas couldn't hear him, but he would glance over to see the bluenette's lips moving. Roxas hadn't ever really paid much attention to him before, so he didn't know if he was using his powers or just being strange. The kid was strange for not talking to anyone except Kairi, but everyone knew he had his reason. By fourth period Zexion was looking drained on the verge of falling asleep. The blonde knew that the bluenette was using his powers because every time that tingly sensation started to itch at his fingertips, it would disappear. He had now come to know the tingly feeling meant his hexing powers were about to become active. Whatever the bluenette was doing was working, but it was also using a great deal of power to do so. After fourth period, Roxas and Zexion pushed their way into the cafeteria so they could sit with the rest of the freshmen from the institute. This included, Namine, Kairi, and his brothers. The only sophomore was Demyx who always had to sit next to Zexion. They walked up to the table as Zexion gave a small yawn sitting down before resting his head on the table and closing his eyes. Demyx looked over at the bluenette asleep next to him then up a Roxas with a raised eyebrow.

"Wow," Kairi said as she sat down across from the sleeping Zexion. "You must really be trying to cause chaos. I haven't seen Zexion like this since his first training session." She leaned over the table and touched his forehead. "At least he doesn't have a fever this time." Her blue eyes shot a glare over to Roxas. "Seriously, try to control your powers a bit better. I know you're new to all this, but no one has had this much trouble."

"So this is all my fault?" Roxas glowered, "You knew this was going to happen so why even let me come to school?"

"Because you would have destroyed the institute." Namine stated matter-of-factly as she took a bite of her vanilla pudding. "It was better that you were around all of us then almost alone at the institute. Professor Eraqus was going to be out and the teachers could only do so much. Technically only Luxord could control you, but he wouldn't be able to do it all day. Power over time is very difficult to control and have serious repercussions. Besides, now Zexion can take a break since Kairi is here."

"You know Zexion's and Kairi's powers?" Sora asked as he looked at Namine sitting next to him. The blonde girl just giggled telling them she wasn't going to tell. "I know, I know. It's a secret." The brunette sighed pushing around the peas on his plate obviously in deep thought.

"Don't feel bad Roxas," Ventus smiled, "I almost destroyed Huntington Beach that one night."

"That was my fault…" Roxas admitted looking away from Ventus. "My powers made you lose complete control of your powers." He remembered thinking that it was at first his brother's fault only to find out that it was his own. Ventus frowned and gave his brother a nudge trying to get him the cheer up.

"What I'm trying to say is that shit happens," Ventus shrugged, "That's why we have each other. I mean, sure you caused me to lose control of my powers, but you also stopped me. It worked out in the end."

"Both of those were accidents." Roxas pointed out, "I had no idea what I was doing and was trying to get us out of danger."

"Regardless," Kairi butted in, "you shouldn't worry so much about it. Your powers aren't going crazy now so let's just drop the subject and eat." The table became silent as everyone started to eat their lunches except Zexion who was out like a burnt out light. Roxas couldn't help but feel bad because it was his lack of control that made Zexion so tired. Getting frustrated with the tension in the air, Roxas stood up and proceeded to leave the table.

"Where are you going?" Kairi growled obviously not wanting him to leave in fear that he might take the entire school to the shadow world. He doubted he could do that though, at least not yet.

"To the bathroom." Roxas retorted, "Or do you think that I can't go to the bathroom without hexing the entire school?"

"No, I don't." Kairi sighed looking like she was trying to figure out what to do. "Just be careful." Roxas rolled his eyes before storming out of the cafeteria angry at the world. He was angry at Kairi and Zexion for looking at him like he was a nuclear bomb. He was angry at his powers for never listening. He was angry at himself for not being able to control his powers. And lastly, he was angry at being a mutant. It was nice at first, but now it was just frustrating. Slamming the door open to the bathroom he walked over to the sinks and just looked down at nothing. The wet stickiness of tears started to run down his cheeks as he let the anger build up. He was so angry that he didn't feel the tingly sensation that warns him of his hexing powers activating.

"Hey Roxie," a deep voice said softly, "No need to be upset. It happens to everyone." The blonde looked up to see Axel walking into the bathroom with a gentle smile. "I almost burned the entire school down when my powers chose to make me look like the human torch from the fantastic four."

"What did you do? Fly around the school lighting everything on fire?" Roxas replied sourly. He heard a low chuckle next to him now realizing the red head had closed the gap there was a few seconds earlier.

"Not exactly," Axel grinned, "But something like that." He placed his large hand on Roxas' back trying to comfort him. That was when the blonde felt a sudden jolt of energy attack the red head. His blue eyes widened as he watched Axel start summoning fire randomly unable to control his powers. After that, everything started to go wrong. First, Roxas leaned against the sink only to have it break along with the rest of the sinks spewing water everywhere. Second, anything that was bolted down fell down crashing into the floor. Third, the toilets started to overflow causing more water to flood the bathroom, but this water was also filled with human waste. He heard the door slam open but couldn't see who had entered because he was still in shock. A cold clammy hand was pressed to his cheek as he felt as if his powers were being taken away from his body (**1**). At that moment everything stopped and repaired itself as if nothing had ever happened. Even Axel seemed to have control over his powers again, but his green eyes were glued on the blonde and the bluenette next to him. The red head ran over to catch Zexion before he hit the floor when Kairi came bursting in.

"Is everyone okay?" Kairi panted from the little sprint she had just finished. Her blue eyes saw Zexion unconscious in Axel's arms and Roxas looking like he was about ready to pass out himself. She ran over to Zexion to check his temperature only to look more worried than she did before. "I'll go get Demyx." She simply stated before running out of the bathroom. Roxas winced as he placed the palm of his hand on his forehead wondering where the sudden headache came from. He couldn't tell if it was from all his anger, the shock of everything that happened or if Zexion had done something to create it. As quickly as Kairi had left, Demyx came through the door and took Zexion from Axel. The dirty blonde teen summoned some water and placed it on the bluenette's forehead. The blonde tried to move, but two strong arms wrapped around him and picked him up. He had no strength to struggle so he just closed his eyes trying to get the headache to go away. It didn't work because there were so many people talking only making his headache turn to a migraine. There was a sudden silence so Roxas opened his eyes to see where he was. He was in the passenger seat of Axel's car with Axel driving like a mad man to get back to the institute. The blonde closed his eyes again drifting into unconsciousness thinking about his curse.

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**A/N:** **1**: Okay, so one of Zexion's powers is that he can absorb other mutant powers. Kind of like Rogue from the X-men, the only difference it that he can retain the powers. Of course if he retains too many then he will end up destroying himself or something along the lines of that. As for his other power, he didn't absorb that one. I just get the feeling that Zexion would be like a super mutant or something. ^^;;

Just take into consideration that this is roughly written so it probably has errors here and there. Also, someone brought up about Ventus being called a twin and I agree, it does sound weird since they are triplets. From here on out I am going to be referring to the triplets as brothers or triplets. ^^;; If I get a chance to go back and edit my previous chapters, then I will, but my main focus is updating for you guys. So, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until my next installment.~Byes


	6. The Way of the Words

**A/N:** So here is the chapter you've all been waiting for! You get to see Zexion's powers! YAY! If I had to choose any mutant powers, this would for sure be it! Sorry it took so long, but I had to write the first chapter to 'the last of the void war' because it had been nagging me for a while. Also, I have another story on top of that which I will update next. Like I said in the previous chapter, I will update one, and then update the other to be fair. It is actually kind of hard to do when I get so caught up in just one, but I will keep to my word. So the next story to be updated will be 'the other side of sandpaper' then 'the last of the void war' then back to 'the HeX Factor' I hope you like the chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~6~**

**Way of the Words**

Roxas opened his eyes letting out a groan due to his headache feeling like someone had smashed it in with a brick. He didn't even bother trying to sit up or try to figure out what time it was, it only made his head hurt more. The only thoughts that were going through his head were what happened before his massive headache appeared. Zexion had done something that took away his powers and resulted in the current headache. The blonde turned his head slightly noticing the tall figure of Axel asleep in the chair next to his bed. _'Why the hell is he here? Where the hell is Ventus and Sora?'_ he thought regretting it as more pain was forced to his head. This headache called for some pain killers so he sat up slowly trying to fight the dizziness and stars. However, the moment he set one foot down on the floor it felt like someone pulled the carpet out from underneath him. Instead of hitting the floor like he expected, he fell against someone's chest.

"Easy there," Axel whispered. "You need to rest." The blonde felt himself being lifted onto the bed still trying to make the world stop spinning like the teacups at Disneyland. "I'll go get you some water and aspirin for the headache." He heard Axel say as he closed his eye trying to cope with the pain. After what seemed like hours to Roxas, the red head returned with a glass of water and aspirin. Axel gently wrapped an arm around the blonde to help him sit up before handing him the two little pills and the glass of water.

"Thank you," Roxas mumbled wanting the headache to go away. He took the two pills and glass of water downing them quickly. When he was finished the red head took the glass and laid him back down.

"You're welcome," Axel replied with a gentle smile. "Now get some rest. If you need anything I'll be right here."

"Axel…" Roxas whispered grabbing the older teen's arm. "Where is Ventus and Sora?" It was unusual for him not to see his brothers there when he was sick because if one of them was sick, then all of them were sick. He missed having his brothers there with him because they were always together and now the institute was changing that.

"They had to go to school," Axel replied kneeling down next to the bed to look into Roxas' eyes. "Demyx and I stay whenever Zexion gets sick since we are the only ones that can keep his fever in down." He looked into the confused blue eyes that were on the verge of tears. "Don't worry. Your brothers will be back in a few hours. For now either Demyx or I will take care of you." The blonde vaguely wondered how long he had been out as he gave Axel a small nod. The headache was slowly going away as he closed his eyes drifting back to sleep. He heard the door open and Demyx's voice say something to Axel, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Soft, warm lips touched his forehead as the darkness of sleep consumed him once more.

**~0~**

Roxas woke up feeling uncomfortably hot so he tried to kick off his blankets that didn't want to move. The room was completely dark except the small rays of light that peaked through the cracks of the blinds. Frustrated, he sat up to see what was holding his blankets down to see Ventus asleep on his left side and Sora asleep in his right side. His brothers both looked like they were about to fall off the bed since it was only a twin bed not meant for two people to sleep in, yet alone three. It was nice that they wanted to sleep with him when he was sick and all, but this was just ridiculous. Somehow he managed to climb over Sora and make his way to the door without waking either of them up. He was extremely thirsty so he figured he'd go down to the kitchen to get a glass of water. With a yawn, he made his way down the stairs and to the kitchen not using his shadow powers for once. It didn't make sense that he actually had to walk to the kitchen because if he was tired then it would just take him there automatically. When he arrived at the kitchen there was someone looking in the fridge. Ignoring the person he went to the cupboards to get out a cup and pour himself some water.

"God," Axel complained, "Why does Reno always hide my chocolate milk?! I swear he takes it up to his room or something." Roxas froze when he heard the voice wondering why the red head was up at this hour and in the kitchen. He was so distracted that he didn't realize his cup was already full until the water started spilling over onto his hand and onto the floor.

"Shit!" the blonde muttered knowing that he must have gotten Axel's attention now. He looked over towards the fridge to see green eyes staring at him with an amused expression.

"You feeling better?" Axel asked closing the fridge and waling over to the blonde. Roxas just nodded not knowing what to say and feeling a strange burning sensation on his face. "From what I've learned, that is only one of Zexion's powers. He can absorb another mutant's powers and retain them as well. However, it renders that mutant powerless for 48 hours and knocks them out for at least 24 hours if not more. You were out for 36 hours so you got another 12 hours before you get your powers back."

"48 hours?" Roxas exclaimed wide eyed. Now he knew why he couldn't shadow travel to the kitchen even if he was asleep. The headache that he had was also because of Zexion touching him at lunch a day and a half ago. So that was why Kairi and Namine were so insistent that he stay close to Zexion because Zexion could take away his powers if they were out of control. The only thing he couldn't understand was why Zexion had been so tired if he hadn't used his powers until lunch.

"Wait?" the blonde thought aloud, "Only one of his powers? What is his other one?" Axel just gave him a shrug obviously not knowing what other powers the bluenette had. He determined that Zexion must had been using his powers to keep him from hexing people before lunch, but since he was too tired he just chose to absorb his powers instead.

"You should be resting," the red head stated as he poked the blonde's forehead. "Now drink your water and get back to bed." This statement caused the blonde to shoot him a glare which he returned with a smile. "In 12 hours you'll have your powers back and you want to be in good shape so they don't go crazy again." Roxas let out a sigh knowing Axel was right about him getting some rest even though he had been out for 36 hours already. He drank the water in his cup and put the cup in the sink almost slipping on the water he spilled on the floor.

"I should clean this up before I go back to bed." Roxas sighed as he went to get a paper towel, but a hand stopped him.

"You're joking right?" Axel laughed, "I can clean it up in two seconds." The blonde just gave him a bewildered look. "Fire powers, remember? Get these things memorized kid." The red head laughed as he made fire hover over the water that evaporated instantly. Roxas watched as the fire disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"Oh…" Roxas blinked still looking at the now dry spot on the floor. "I guess I forget because you rarely seem to use your powers…" He heard the red head next to him go into a fit of laughter. There was nothing funny about what he had just admitted so he didn't understand why Axel was laughing like a hyena.

"Come on kid," Axel chuckled, "Let's go back to sleep." The blonde just nodded and followed him up the stairway looking down the entire time. He was about to say something when the ground started to shake violently causing a statue next to him to fall. Before the statue could crush him the red head pushed him out of the way getting crushed underneath instead.

"Axel!" the blonde shouted running over to him. He tried to lift the statue, but it was no use. If there was a time that he really wanted his shadow powers, it was now. The one time he did want them was also the one time that he didn't have them. He swore under his breath that he would never call his powers a curse again if this is what would happen. As if the earthquake alone wasn't bad plants started to rip open the floor and objects started to fly around. At first he thought Ventus was causing the earthquake, but now he wasn't so sure. All the students started coming out of their rooms using their powers to avoid the falling rubble and flying objects. The door closest to him opened as Zexion stepped out looking calm as usual. He glanced over at Roxas and Axel before closing his eyes and sending everyone in the institute to the shadow world where they wouldn't be harmed any further. Roxas' blue eyes watched the black and white Zexion move towards the stairs and stop.

"Earthquake Stop." Zexion said. His voice echoed as the earth stopped moving. "Items and plants return." The items returned to their proper places and the plants disappeared as well. The statue that had been on top of Axel stood up again even though in the shadow world it just went through him, but at least when they returned it wouldn't be crushing him. He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes before saying the next order. "Building repair." The floor tiles that had been ripped up by the plants hovered in the air to rearrange and fix themselves. Once complete, they fit themselves back into the floor as if nothing had ever disturbed them. The ceiling fragments rose into the air cementing themselves back into the places they had fallen out of. The institute looked as if nothing had ever happened. Zexion was about to bring everyone back from the shadow world when a blonde girl with two pieces of hair sticking up like antennas came charging through the doors and towards him.

"Freeze," The bluenette simply stated causing the girl to come to a halt right in front of him. His eyes narrowed, "Leave Larxene." Said girl disappeared as quickly as she had came shooting the bluenette an evil glare before disappearing out the front doors. Zexion closed his eyes as he brought everyone back from the shadow world now that it was safe. Everyone just looked at him with wide eyes and mouths open completely in shock as to what they had just witnessed. The bluenette just ignored them as he walked over to Axel placing a gloved hand on his head.

"Heal," Zexion said healing all of Axel's injuries. After he was sure Axel was healed he got up and returned to his room slamming the door behind him. Everyone's eyes were staring at the closed door still in shock as to seeing the bluenette's powers and wondering why he seemed so angry afterwards. Kairi and Namine went over to Zexion's door knocking on it lightly.

"Zexion," Kairi said softly, "Are you okay?" She didn't even seem the slightest bit worried about her older brother because she knew he was now just faking being injured probably wanting Roxas to kiss him or something. There was no answer causing her to frown in annoyance. The blonde girl next to her put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.

"Is everyone okay?" Professor Eraqus asked as he entered the hallway. He looked over at Axel still on the floor pretending to be injured.

"Everyone is fine thanks to Zexion," Kairi replied. "Axel is fine he's just pretending to still be injured probably hoping Roxas will kiss him or something." There was laughter among the students, except Roxas' face was now brighter than Rudolph's nose. Roxas glanced over at Axel before scooting away a bit not knowing what else to do.

"Awww," Axel pouted as he sat up, "Why don't you love me Kai?" Fake tears started forming in the corners of his green eyes as he looked up at his sister.

"I love you," the maroon haired girl smiled, "That is why I'm embarrassing you right now. What are siblings for after all?"

"I'll get you back." Axel smirked playfully.

"Oh yeah?" His sister questioned with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "You could never do anything to me. You love me too much."

"This calls for a prank war!" Axel declared standing up and pointing a finger at Kairi.

"Bring it on, big brother." The maroon hair girl smiled, "You'll never win. But it will commence tomorrow afternoon. Now is not the time." She walked over to her room and opened the door. "Night." Professor Eraqus suggested that everyone return to their rooms as well so everyone did as they were told. When Roxas opened the door to his room he realized that Ventus and Sora were still sound asleep as if nothing happened. He shook his head with a small laugh before wiggling his way between them to sleep. His blue eyes closed as he thought of Zexion's powers, the way of the words.

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**A/N [PLEASE READ****]:** Zexion has the power over words. How fucking badass is that? Whatever he says happens. Of course the down side to it is that since he doesn't have complete control over his powers he can't talk which is why he remains silent. Also, you might be wondering why he can control Roxas' powers without even a second thought, it is one of his powers. When he absorbs another mutants powers he instantly has control over them. The only down side to this is he can't control his absorbing powers, all it takes is one little touch and he can knock someone out. So even though he is extremely powerful, he does have some major set backs that limit him to being around people. Poor Zexi, XD but we all know that Demyx won't mind regardless haha.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	7. Approaching Storm

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long. I got caught up with my other story and ended up writing two chapters for it. Sorry... There are some footnotes that I would like you to read. Some of them are important, some of them are just my comments. I hope you like the chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~7~**

**Approaching Storm**

Roxas woke the next morning to have yet again Ventus' foot in his face and with Sora drooling all over his shirt. It didn't make sense how Ventus always ended up like that, but he always did it. If he had his powers he would have shadow traveled to get away from them. That wasn't the case this morning because Zexion had taken his powers for 48 hours and he still had about six hours left. This left him to resort to kicking both of them off the bed so he could up. The benefit to doing this was it also got both of them up as well. Ventus and Sora fell onto the floor with a loud thud and groan.

"Ow," Sora whined sitting up and rubbing his head. "It must be time to get up because Rox wouldn't kick us off otherwise." With a tried yawn he stood up walking to the other side of the bed where Ventus was staring up at the ceiling still in a daze. Roxas got off the bed offering his brother a hand which he took rubbing his head.

"A little vicious Rox," Ventus sighed continuing to massage his throbbing head. "I think I got a concussion from that fall." Sora and Roxas exchanged a look both bursting into a fit of laughter landing them a glare from Ventus. Ventus growled tackling his two brothers onto the bed to tickle attack them and ending up laughing with them. The three of them collapsed on the bed still snickering softly completely out of breath.

"Okay," Sora breathed heavily, "I'm up. I'm up."

"Looks like I have a new way to get you up." Roxas snickered pushing his brunette brother off the bed so he landed on his butt. Ventus and Roxas burst into laughter as they ran out of the room being chased by Sora. There was something solid that both Ventus and Roxas ran into causing them to fall backwards into Sora. Three pairs of blue eyes look up at the large olive skinned bald man named Rude. Rude didn't say anything, but just helped them up and continued on his way to wherever he was going.

"I am hungry," Sora complained holding his grumbling stomach. "Last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg!" Like a bullet, the brunette took off down the hallway towards the stairs leaving Ventus and Roxas behind. The two blonde brothers looked at each other with a smirk before darting off after their brunette brother pushing and shoving the whole time. They got to the kitchen door all at the same time ending up getting stuck in the frame. The triplets wiggled to get free causing the three of them to all to fall on their faces. The kitchen went silent watching the triplets enter the kitchen like a stampede of elephants. The silence was quickly dissipated when the triplets broke out in laughter each agreeing that it was a tie. Roxas went to the water cooler to get something to drink to quench his dry throat. Ventus headed towards the refrigerator to get out the milk for cereal while Sora stretched heading for a chair knowing Ventus would get him a bowl of cereal too. The television was turned on like every morning to the news just in case there was something about mutants on. There never was because no one really knew about them yet, but every so often there would be a story that they knew a mutant was behind. Today was one of those days.

"And our top story this morning," The anchorman said with an award winning smile. "People have said that they have spotted a white winged angel fighting a black winged one in New York City. We have heard reports, but this is the first time that someone submitted a video." The anchorman disappeared as the video was played making the kitchen go silent. There were two winged people one with black wings and long silver hair and one with white wings with blonde hair that defied all laws of gravity found only in the Strife family. Both mutants were wearing masks, but all they needed to see was the hair. The triplets were so in shock that Sora missed the chair as he sat down, Ventus dropped the entire gallon of milk on the floor and Roxas spit out the water he had been drinking into Axel's face. Their eyes connected knowing that there was no mistaking the white winged 'angel' was their older brother Cloud.

"What the hell?" Axel frowned letting the water evaporate using his powers which he was now extremely thankful for. All eyes turned to the Strife brothers wondering what had caused the shock written all over their faces. Zexion entered the kitchen frowning at the scene before glancing up at the last image of the black winged angel get smaller as the anchorman reappeared. His blue eyes narrowed sending the deadliest of glares towards the television.

"Turn off," the bluenette barked making the television turn off with just his words. He didn't like that everyone now learned what his powers where, but since they already knew he didn't have to hide it any longer. Nevertheless, he hated his powers because they isolated him from everyone though Demyx didn't seem to mind regardless. All the eyes that had been focused on the triplets were now focused on Zexion because of his sudden outburst. Ignoring everyone's stares, Zexion made his way to the freezer, grabbed the waffles and put two of them in the toaster.

"I think me and my brothers need to make a trip to New York…" Roxas said still staring at the black television screen causing everyone to look at him. Zexion looked over his shoulder as Kairi entered the kitchen looking absolutely confused as to why Sora was sitting on the floor and there was milk spilled at Ventus' feet.

"I'm going to," the bluenette said now that Kairi was making her way into the kitchen followed by Namine, Rude and Reno. (**1**) Everyone's eyes went back to Zexion surprised that he actually talked without using his powers and only three people, not including Zexion, knew why. Professor Eraqus entered the kitchen followed by the tree other professors Luxord, Lexaeus and Xaldin all looking extremely serious.

"You can keep nothing from Professor." Axel informed Roxas in a whisper.

"I know that you want to go to New York," Professor Eraqus said looking at Ventus, Roxas, Sora and Zexion. "But you have school today and I cannot let the four of you go unattended."

"You don't understand," Zexion frowned, "The black winged person is my older brother Sephiroth. His powers are chaos aligned meaning he has control over destruction. All it takes is one thought and whatever it he thought about is wiped off the face of the planet as if it never existed." There was more to his older brother's powers, but that one by far was the worst. His brother could also bring death, disease and suffering to any person he desired as long as they were within range. The last of Sephiroth's powers was he could summon Daemons, powerful creatures from the Warp world of chaos.

"Believe me, he isn't a good person either." Zexion growled, "Whoever that white winged person is somehow preventing my brother from destroying New York City." Professor Eraqus tapped his chin thoughtfully thinking about who he should send on the mission to stop the fighting in New York.

"Our brother is the other person," Ventus stated looking at his brothers. "We didn't know he had mutant powers though…" The triplets had discussed the possibility that Cloud could have mutant powers, but if he did they agreed he was really good at hiding it. Once again everyone's eyes were on Zexion, Ventus, Roxas and Sora.

"Are you all certain they are who you believe them to be?" Professor Eraqus asked causing all four to nod without hesitation. "Ventus, Roxas and Sora will go to New York City escorted by Professor Luxord so you can talk to your brother. As for you Zexion you are to remain here. I feel it would be too dangerous sending you where your brother is."

"No," Zexion argued, "I have to go because I might be the only one that can stop him. You and I both know he isn't someone to be taken lightly. I'm going." Seeing there was no arguing with Zexion, Professor Eraqus let out a sigh. The teen was right about being only one that could stop his older brother.

"Fine," Professor Eraqus sighed, "but you are to remain with Ventus, Sora, Roxas and Luxord. Do I make myself clear?" Zexion nodded with a frustrated sigh knowing it was the only chance he had of going. He hadn't seen his older brother for nearly a decade. Sephiroth had been fifteen and he had been five. It was the one night that haunted his dreams even now. It was the night his older brother tried to kill him. It was the night his powers became active. It was the night he killed his parents.

_Flashback_

_The small blue haired boy woke up to the sound of a large explosion coming from outside. His soft blue eyes widened in fear not knowing what caused the explosion only knowing that his older brother had yet to return home. He threw off the covers and ran to the window trying to see what happened through the heavy rain they always got in Black Diamond, Washington. Frustrated, he ran out of his room, down the stairs, and out the front door._

_The moment the boy stepped outside something attacked him sending him flying five feet away from where he just was. He would have gone farther, but he hit a tree causing pain to shoot throughout his body and the air to be knocked out of his lungs. He panted trying to restore the air that had just escaped him. The ground shook underneath him as a large hideous beast charged at him with the body of a lion, a goat head sticking out on the left side breathing fire, dragon like wings, and a serpent tail.(__**2**__)_

"_Stop!" The boy screamed hearing it echo throughout the forest. He was trembling waiting for the beast to kill him, but it never came. His terrified blue eyes looked up to see the monster frozen in place as if it had been turned into a statue. _

"_Bravo little brother," a familiar voice said over soft clapping, "Bravo." The boy looked up to see his older brother standing before him with large black feathered wings. His older brother's eyes were no longer the way he remembered them, but cold and distant. He had always felt safe with his brother, it was his brother that protected him, it was his brother that taught him how to ride a bike or read a book, but now he could no longer feel that safety. Something had changed in him that made the boy want to run away from his own brother. _

"_Sephiroth?" the boy cried clinging to the tree behind him. Sephiroth was his older brother so surely he wouldn't hurt him. It was all just a prank that he was playing or a really bad nightmare. This couldn't be real._

"_I'm sorry little Z," the gray haired teen smirked, "but there is only room for one mutant child in this family." A dark energy was formed in his hand taking the form of a long skinny sword slicing the boy's right eye. The boy let out a scream of pain as he held his bleeding eye while his other filled with tears. His brother let out an insane laugh as he walked over to grab the young boy's neck. However, the moment he did all his powers were absorbed into the boy._

"_What have you done!?" Sephiroth growled tightening his grip around the boy's small neck._

"_I didn't mean to," the boy choked out grabbing at the wrist trying to break free. The touch between their skin took the rest of Sephiroth's powers knocking him unconscious. The grip around the boy's neck loosened and he wiggled his way free before running back to the house. He was greeted by his parents whose eyes were wide with shock when they saw the boy's bleeding eye._

"_Zexion!" the boy's mother shrieked, "What happened?!" She went to go embrace the boy, but the moment their skin met she was knocked unconscious. The boy's eyes widened in fear as his mother collapsed in front of him._

"_What did you do?!" the boy's father yelled grabbing a baseball bat from the closet next to him. "You're a devil child too aren't you? You're just like your older brother!" His father started beating him with the baseball bat to avoid touching the boy._

'_I don't want to,' "Die," the boy started thinking only to say the last word out loud. The word echoed throughout the house only to be drowned out but his mother and father's screaming. He looked up to see his parents burning to death not knowing what to do to stop it. Within minutes his parents are nothing more than a pile of ash next to him. (__**3**__)_

_End Flashback_

Zexion clenched his teeth at the horrible memory wanting to cry, but fighting it. This wasn't the time to cry because there were others watching him so he would just keep his emotionless mask on until he was alone.

"Are we leaving today?" Sora asked finally getting off the floor now he was no longer in shock. Professor Eraqus nodded knowing that this couldn't wait especially with Sephiroth involved. Zexion had survived that night, but Sephiroth had left his mark. Zexion suffered from extremely high fevers randomly or after overexerting himself while using his power. There was also the scar that he hid with his hair extremely well since only Professor Eraqus knew of it. (**4**)

"I'll go get the jet ready," Luxord stated leaving the kitchen to go prepare the Gummi jet (**5**) ready for departure. Ventus, Sora and Roxas had all heard about the Gummi jet from Axel. Axel had told them it was Professor Eraqus' personal jet that he used to try and help mutants whose powers were developing. The triplets had never seen the Gummi jet and now they were going to ride in it making them feel extremely excited. Zexion, on the other hand, was preparing himself for the soon to be family reunion with his older brother.

Luxord prepared the Gummi jet quickly while Zexion, Sora, Roxas and Ventus got ready. When they went to the basement to meet Luxord they were all surprised when they saw something one would see in a science fiction movie. Zexion got in first climbing up the large ramp leading into the interior of the jet seeming unfazed by the whole thing. He sat down in set farthest from the control panel with his arms crossed looking beyond angry. Ventus took the seat in front of Zexion, Sora took the seat next to Luxord in front of the control panel and Roxas took the seat next to Ventus. Luxord started hitting a bunch of buttons opening the hidden gate and activating the Gummi Ship. With one last button pushed they were off to New York.

When they arrived at New York the Gummi jet went into stealth mode so they wouldn't be seen. Luxord parked it on the roof of a building that Professor Eraqus owned where no one had access to the roof except a select few people. The five of them crammed into the elevator waiting to go down the fifty floors to get to ground level. Roxas took out his cell phone when they reached the ground level so he could dial Cloud's number. Thinking back, they probably should have called before they left, but Zexion and Sora both demanded that they leave as soon as possible. The phone rang three times before Cloud answered the phone.

"Hey Rox," Cloud answered, "Long time no chat. How are you, Sora and Ventus doing at your new school?"

"We are in New York City right now," Roxas sighed hoping Cloud wouldn't get angry with their sudden appearance. "We need to talk to you about something important and it couldn't wait."

"Umm," Cloud replied, "I am at work right now. If you want you can come to my store. You aren't without adult supervision are you?"

"Professor Luxord is with us," Roxas informed Cloud, "Are you sure you want us to go to your store?"

"It's fine," Cloud chuckled, "Just don't touch anything when you get here. Make sure Sora knows that."

"Got it," Roxas replied, "See you in a few." They said their goodbyes before Roxas shut his phone to relay the message to the rest of the party. "He said to meet him at his store and that Sora doesn't touch anything when we get there."

"I'll try," Sora grinned even though both Ventus and Roxas knew he would touch things anyways. It was still rush hour traffic so no matter what mode of transportation they took it would be a while until they reached Cloud's store. A taxi was out of the question because there were five of them and walking would take forever so that left them with the subway. Roxas was kind of grateful that his powers weren't back yet because who knew what kind of havoc his powers could cause in a subway. He knew that if anything happened Luxord could stop time or Zexion could use either of his powers. So the five mutants went to the subway to head towards Cloud's store in the fashion district. (**6**) As they were exiting the subway station onto the sidewalk Zexion stopped holding his right eye.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked Zexion. They all looked at Zexion not knowing why he was in sudden pain.

"He's near," Zexion winced from the scar that connect him to his brother. It was hurting more than it ever had meaning only one thing. Sephiroth's powers had grown and he was within eye sight if they looked around.

"Well, well, well," a deep voice said from behind Zexion. "It's been awhile, little Z." Zexion's eyes widened as he turned around to face his older brother, Sephiroth. The approaching storm had just arrived.

* * *

**A/N: 1: **It is because of Kairi's presence and powers that Zexion actually talks.

**2:** yes it is a chimera from Greek Mythology. Don't judge me okay. I love Greek Mythology!

**3: **Sephiroth has the power over death. So with Zexion's power over the words and Sephiroth's power over death this is what ended up happening. Don't kill me please.

**4: **I know that Zexion doesn't actually have a scar, but I chose to gave him one. I feel really bad for Zexi because I am so mean to him. First I give him powers that isolates him, then I give him a horrible older brother, and just to put the icing on the cake I gave him a horrible past. Please don't kill me. I promise that Zexi will be happy by the end of this story.

**5:** Yes I had to make it called the gummi jet. XD haha made by chip and dale!

**6: **I know absolutely nothing about New York so don't hate me if I messed something up.


	8. Rain That Never Came

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long to update. I had a bunch of tests and essays to prepare for so I didn't get much time to write anything. That and I was in a car accident last week, fml. It wasn't anything serious, but my friend's car totally got fucked up... well at least the bumper. Yeah, long story there that ends with me never wanting to drive with her again in the rain. There are a lot of footnotes and I suggest that you read them. Most of them are explaining things.

* * *

**~8~**

**Rain that never came**

"Sephiroth," Zexion growled still holding his burning right eye. Amusement played upon his older brother's face as if the man was enjoying seeing his younger brother in pain. The gray haired man lifted his hand reaching out to his younger brother's face and touching it without having his energy or powers drained. He chuckled at the blunette's frightened eyes that should have been relieved since someone could finally touch him without horrible consequences.

"How?" Sephiroth said for his younger brother, "You'll find out soon enough little Z. For now, I will let you go, but I will find you and I will kill you soon enough." There was nothing left to say so he walked by his younger brother and the four other mutants disappearing into the crowd as if he was nothing more than an illusion. Luxord's blue eyes followed Sephiroth making sure he didn't change his mind about leaving them alone. During the entire encounter he was ready to freeze time so they could get away; thankfully, he didn't need to take such drastic actions. Professor Eraqus had warned him about the chaos powers the man controlled making him a class level five mutant (**1**) just like Zexion. The blonde professor looked over at the bluenette with a worried expression. It was probably a mistake bringing him along, but Professor Eraqus said it was for the best since Zexion was probably the one of the few that could go up against Sephiroth.

Zexion couldn't move from his spot still staring at where his brother had just been moments before being able to touch him despite his powers. He knew that even if he already obtained someone's powers that he could still render them unconscious for hours with a single touch. Nevertheless, his older brother seemed to be able to find a way around it which scared him. Of all the people in the world Sephiroth was the last person he wanted to touch him. (**2**)

"Zexion?" Roxas whispered placing his hand on the blunette's shoulder, "Are you okay?" Zexion narrowed his eyes as he shook his head from side to side still covering his right eye. He wasn't going to talk in fear that he wouldn't have control over his powers with his emotions on the fritz. (**3**) If Kairi was there he could talk to them, but she wasn't so he had to remain silent. He had to get his emotions in check before he could even think about talking otherwise he could end up hurting people. A heavy sigh escaped his lips knowing that his brother would find him eventually so he let his hand drop to his side, turn around and started walking hoping the rest of the group would follow. He didn't know where he was going and didn't even really care waiting for Luxord or one of the triplets take the lead. The triplets looked at one another following Zexion and Luxord without saying a word. They were all afraid to say anything because they didn't know what had happened between him and his older brother in the past. The entire trip to Cloud's store was in silence and even when they arrived they were still silent. The store was already filled with people all wanting to have the newest designs of StrifeHart. (**4**) A long haired brunette male with blue eyes and a scar across his face approached the group of five.

"Hey Sora, Ven, Roxas and friends of Cloud's brothers." said the older brunette. "Your brother is expecting you." Leon and Cloud were business partners running the fashion line StrifeHart which had recently become a worldwide line. He nodded his head towards the back signaling the group to follow him.

"Hey Leon!" Sora said with a smile trying to forget about the events that took place earlier. The idea of having an older brother like Sephiroth scared him because he couldn't understand why an older brother would wish to kill their younger one. Growing up the triplets hadn't been close to Cloud due to the significant age difference, but Cloud always played the big brother role until he went off to college.

"This is Zexion and Professor Luxord." Sora said introducing the bluenette and older blonde. Leon and Luxord exchanged a handshake, but Zexion just crossed his arms looking away angrily. Zexion didn't want to be there because his reason for coming to New York was to face his brother again. Of course, it hadn't gone as he had expected which didn't help lighten his already foul mood when he caught the end of the breaking news earlier that morning.

"What brings you to New York anyways?" Leon asked when they were away from the ears of the customers, "Shouldn't you be in school? It is a weekday after all."

"We need to talk to Cloud about something important." Ven informed the older brunette. Leon simply nodded not wanting to butt into other people's business, though he was certain that Cloud would tell him later, the two never kept secrets from each other.

"Well I hope you can wait a bit," Leon sighed, "He is on a business call right now so it might be a while." Both of them hated doing business calls so they took turns taking them and this one was Cloud's turn. It was about a recent fashion show that was to take place three weeks from now.

"We got time," Roxas replied seating himself in one of the many chairs that lined the narrow hallway. He didn't really care about the time because he still had at least another hour before his powers returned which continued to bother him. If Zexion's older brother had tried to do anything he would have been completely useless just standing on the sidelines to watch. The fear he saw in Zexion's eyes told him that the 'black winged angel' was not to be taken lightly so it was best if they waiting for a few hours before trying to find Sephiroth. Besides, they still needed to talk to Cloud about his powers and why he was fighting Sephiroth to begin with. Luxord, Sora and Ven sat down as well, but Zexion remained standing. He glanced over at Zexion, who was just leaning against the wall with his head down appearing to be in deep thought. Like always, the bluenette wore an expression that was unreadable so Roxas had no idea what he was thinking about.

"I have to get to work," Leon said, "The bathroom is at the end of the hallway to the left and there is a small kitchen to the right if you get hungry."

"Thanks Leon," the triplets replied together as they watched Leon take his leave disappearing back to the front. Zexion stood up and started walking towards the end of the hallway causing four pairs of blue eyes to follow his movement.

"Where are you going?" Luxord asked wanting to keep an extra close eye on the bluenette.

"Bathroom," Zexion simply stated pausing slightly to glare at the four other mutants telling them not to follow him. Luxord knew that the kid might try to find his brother on his own, but Luxord gave him the benefit of the doubt and let Zexion go to the bathroom alone. He only hoped he wouldn't regret it later. It wouldn't matter if they did try to follow the bluenette because Roxas couldn't use his powers yet to chase after him in the shadow world. Luxord would try to freeze time to stop him, but Zexion would just have to utter the word 'reject' preventing any mutant power to become unavailable for a few minutes. (**5**) Ventus and Sora wouldn't be able to do much either because they were still learning whereas Zexion had years of practice. Even with his years of practice, however, he still couldn't always control his powers leaving him the only option of remaining silent when it was unnecessary for him to talk. He walked down the hallway to the bathroom glancing back at the four pairs of eyes still following his every move. Eventually they would learn that he left, but the farther ahead he was from them the better.

He entered the single bathroom, shut the door behind him not even bothering to lock it, and entered the shadow world. As much as he hated having to absorb Roxas' powers two days ago, he had to admit that they were proving to be quite useful. First with the attack from Riku, Terra, Larxene and Marluxia, (**6**) and now with escaping to find his brother alone. This was a fight between them and no one else. Using his right eye as his guide, Zexion made his way through the shadow world to find his older brother Sephiroth.

**~0~**

Luxord looked down at his watch checking to see how long it had been since Zexion entered the bathroom. The bluenette had been in there for over ten minutes meaning one of two things: one, Zexion was in there trying to calm his emotions. Two, Zexion had left to fight Sephiroth alone. The older blonde knew it was probably the latter option considering he had watched the boy grow up at the institute. With a heavy sigh, he got up to head to the bathroom hoping that he would find Zexion still there. Of course when he got there, the bathroom was unlocked with no sign of the bluenette anywhere. The one time that he tried to be nice and give the kid a break was the time he runs off to do something stupid, figures.

"You three wait here," Luxord ordered the triplets as he walked by them. The triplets exchanged looks knowing Zexion probably used Roxas' shadow travel to escape without them knowing. Roxas let out a frustrated sigh wishing more than ever that he had his powers again. Being without them was causing more trouble than he had ever expected, first with the attack on the institute, now with Zexion missing and being unable to follow him.

"No! We're going too!" Ventus demanded standing up. "How do you expect to find Zexion without our help? I could try to use the wind to find him since that's the only element that I have some control over."

"I could try using the sun." Sora suggested, "It's where I get most of my power from so maybe I can use it to search for him from above…. Though," He paused tapping his finger to his chin, "I've never tried anything like that. I don't even know if I am capable of doing something like that."

"You're all idiots," Roxas retorted, "If he is in the shadow world there would be no way of you tracing his movement unless we were in the shadow world as well. Since I don't have my powers back yet we'll have to wait. I'm positive he won't exit the shadow world until he has located his brother since he could simply pass through people, cars, and buildings to get there faster. He probably also knows that it would be close to impossible to locate him." Luxord, Sora and Ventus all exchanged looks agreeing with Roxas since Zexion was most likely using his powers of shadow travel.

"Regardless," Luxord frowned, "The three of you shall remain here while I search for Zexion."

"Are you really going to leave us unattended?" Ventus smirked, "Sure we might be at our brother's store, but things could still happen. We are still learning how to control our powers." He watched a range of emotions play across the blonde professor's face before it returned to his serious expression. Luxord knew that he couldn't leave the triplets unattended even if their older brother was a mutant that seemed to have control over his powers. He was sent there to make sure they didn't cause any disasters with their powers so there was no point in arguing with the element wielding blonde.

"Fine," Luxord said admitting his defeat. "But you are not to wander off by yourselves. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," the triplets chimed together causing Luxord to let out a nervous sigh. He seriously started to question why he was a professor at the institute when he was definitely not the most responsible person in the world. Loosing track of Zexion was proof of that. God what he wouldn't give for some vodka right now? (**7**)

"Come on brats," the blonde professor frowned, "let's go find Zexion." The triplets nodded following after their professor out of the store all of them forgetting to let either Cloud or Leon know they were leaving.

Leon's eyes followed the group of four leaving the store wondering where the bluenette kid was. He had a feeling that the reason for them departing suddenly wasn't good from the serious expressions on their faces. His gazed followed them outside as the weather started to turn for the worst threatening to rain with the sound of distant thunder and the strong gusts of wind.

Ventus closed his eyes for a brief second finding the location of the unnatural storm that he learned was forming above the Empire State Building. His blue eyes opened as he looking up towards the sky feeling nature scream in defiance at the unwanted storm preparing to wreak havoc upon New York City. It was the first time since his mutant powers awakened that he could hear the voices of the wind making him wonder if they yelled at him when he wreaked havoc in Huntington Beach. (**8**)

"We should go to the Empire State building." Ventus suggested already starting to run in that direction with the help of the wind to quicken his pace.

"This is no time for sightseeing Ven!" Roxas exclaimed trying to catch up to his brother that seemed unusually fast at the moment with Sora and Luxord following behind. Sora frowned as he focused his powers directing the sun's energy to his legs so he could run faster. He grabbed hold of his brother's left arm bringing him to an abrupt stop.

"What are you doing Ven?" Sora asked looking into his brother's eyes searching for answers as Luxord and Roxas caught up to them.

"This storm is unnatural," Ventus replied looking up at the sky. "Its source is coming from the Empire State Building." The four mutants looked at the Empire State Building with dark storm clouds forming over it.

"But how are we going to get to the top? They must have closed off the 102nd floor because of the storm." Roxas asked assuming that if Zexion and Sephiroth were fighting that they were going to be on the roof.

"Leave that to me," Luxord smirked urging them to continue forward so that they could find Zexion. When they arrived at the entrance to the Empire State Building, with the help from the wind to quicken their pace, Luxord took out the card with the queen of hearts on it. He brought it to his mouth, kissed it, and threw it into the building before entering. (**9**) The triplets followed the professor wondering what the card had to do with anything. Their questions were answered when no one in the building paid any attention to them with their eyes glazed over as if daydreaming yet going about their business as if nothing had changed.

"Power of illusion," Luxord informed them as they made their way across the lobby and towards the elevators. "I made the illusion that we aren't here so they can't stop us." He looked over at Ventus, "Is the source of the storm coming from above?"

"Yes," Ventus answered pressing the button for the elevator desperately wishing it would go faster. The blonde professor took out the ace of spades, kissed it and placed it on the floor in front of the elevator. If anyone exited the elevator they would be caught up in his illusion as well. The elevator doors opened and as the people exited they were trapped within Luxord's illusion. Thankfully there weren't any people waiting for the elevator because both observation decks were closed because of the storm's strong winds. (**10**)

"Now my turn," Sora smiled placing his hand against the elevator control panel. He focused his energy to give the elevator a boost allowing them to arrive at the 102nd floor without have to stop. (**11**) When the doors opened all four pairs of blue eyes widened at the sight before them.

**~0~**

_(Right after Zexion left Cloud's and Leon's store)_

Zexion used the pain from his eye to help determine where his older brother was, but being in the shadow world weakened the burning sensation making it hard for him to determine the exact location. Letting out a frustrated sigh Zexion returned to the real world in an alleyway so to not draw attention to himself. He felt the pain strengthen causing him to hold his right eye. His left eye looked around knowing that Sephiroth was once again near and he found the sign to the Empire State Building looking back at him. Of course his brother would want to fight him at the largest building in the city. A sudden gust of wind got his attention as he looked up at the darkening clouds forming above the historic building. The only way to get to the top was to fly and in order to do so he would have to call upon the powers he absorbed from his brother all those years ago. The powers that he hated even more than his own because he knew exactly what they were capable of and they were powers that were meant to bring harm to others. He would have liked to use his powers over words, but they didn't allow him to modify himself or his powers in anyway, if he could, he would have gotten rid of all of his mutant powers long ago.(**12**) Having no other choice he closed his eyes focusing on using the powers of chaos buried deep within him. They had remained dormant for nearly ten years and were restless when he awakened them.

Zexion doubled over as white searing pain shot through his back from unused wings trying to emerge for the first time ripping through his skin, shirt then jacket. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he panted trying to catch his breath knowing the worst was over and thankful that chaos powers had some healing powers just for the wings. Once the wings broke through the skin they left openings for them to retract and reopen when the user pleased. The only thing was that it left nasty scar like lines down the back starting from the shoulder blades to the middle of the back. His new feathered wings shook the blood off them revealing them to be dark midnight blue on top slowly changing to a soft blue almost white towards the tips. After he steadied his breathing he was ready to face his older brother so he opened up his new wings and took to the sky. Upon reaching the top his older brother was waiting for him wearing the mask he had seen him wearing in the news cast, the typical superhero/ villain mask that went across his eyes. (**13**) Zexion couldn't help but roll his eyes because he never understood why they wore those masks when it was easy to tell who they were if you knew them.

"I knew you would come little Z," Sephiroth smirked, "I see you didn't bring your little friends along, smart move on your part. I don't think they would want to see you die."

"Whatever," Zexion scoffed using dark matter to create a samurai sword. This caused the grey haired man to laugh at the bluenette as he used dark matter to create the extremely long sword that he used the night their parents died. Sephiroth focused dark matter to his left hand raising his arm parallel to the ground in order to open the door to the Warp world of chaos summoning the creatures within.

"Reject!" Zexion shouted over the howling wind and distant thunder. The dark matter around his older brother's left hand disappeared disabling him from summoning the creatures for the time being. An amused smile tugged at the corner of the man's lips as he lowered his left arm back to his side.

"Interesting," the black winged angel said, "It seems that you learned a new trick little Z, but no matter. The end will ultimately be the same for you." He raised his right arm in front of him pointing the deadly sword at his younger brother, "Today is the day you die." Not even a millisecond after those words were spoken, Sephiroth launched himself forward aiming for the blue winged boy's heart. Zexion brought his sword up blocking the attack only to be pushed back the force. He growled forming another samurai sword in his left hand swinging it at his older brother, but his brother was faster and simply took to the sky. The bluenette followed after him trying to keep his main focus on Sephiroth and not the wind that was making it hard to fly. The three swords clashed creating small sparks of dark matter to scatter everywhere.

Zexion winced slightly at the force of the second attack knowing that even though he had complete control over his brother's mutant powers, it didn't teach him how to fight in sword battles. He couldn't rely on his power over the words either because with his emotions unstable there was a fifty-fifty chance his powers wouldn't work. (**14**) Using all his strength he pushed his brother's sword away putting some distance between them. The sword in his left hand disappeared and was replaced with dark matter used to summon the creatures of chaos. Mimicking Sephiroth's movements from earlier, Zexion raised his left arm parallel to the ground slowly opening the gates. The sky seemed to split open as three monstrous, foul-smelling hags, with bats' wings, coal-black skin and hair entwined with serpents appeared. (**15**)

Sephiroth laughed doing the same since Zexion's power to keep others from using their powers only lasted a few minutes at best. (**16**) The sky once again split open revealing four hideous vulture looking birds with the faces of beautiful sharp fanged woman. (**17**) The bat like women attacked the bird like ones filling the sky with horrid shrieking screams. Zexion looked at his older brother knowing that it didn't matter if he used all the chaos powers at once, it would eventually end with a sword battle, a battle he wasn't sure he could win, but he would at least try. The seven creatures that were summoned had already destroyed themselves leaving the two brothers facing each other once again. The gray haired man wasn't going to let his younger brother think things through so he charged full forces towards him opening his wings completely to allow them to catch the wind and add to his speed.

"Freeze!" Zexion shouted hoping his powers wouldn't fail him now and thankfully they didn't completely fail. He watched as ice started to form on the black winged angel's body slowing him down enough to where Zexion could block the attacking sword. Once again the impact caused dark matter to scatter everywhere causing the storm to strengthen.

"Ignite," the bluenette growled as the friction between the two swords created an explosion sending the two brothers flying in opposite directions. Zexion wrapped his wings around him protecting him from the furry of the explosion that he had just created. So far his powers were working for him and he only hoped they would continue to do so until he defeated Sephiroth. Before he could fall to the deck, the blue winged boy opened his wings, caught the wind then scanned the area for his brother, but he was nowhere to be found. The burning sensation from his right eye told him that he was still near, but not the exact location.

"Goodbye little Z," whispered the man's voice from behind.

"Stop!" Zexion screamed as he turned around trying to block the sword and focus his powers on stopping Sephiroth in his path, but neither worked. The long sword impaled him through the chest causing him to cough up blood. He wished he had been stronger, he wished that he had control over his powers, that this had never happened, that his brother would be the way he remembered before that night, that everything was just one horrible nightmare. It wasn't. He at failed at stopping his brother from causing destruction, just like the rain that never came.

* * *

**A/N: 1:** I am almost positive that class level five are the most powerful mutants. I think JeanGray is one...

**2:** He can touch Zexion because he is badass. lol, jk jk, The real reason is because chaos powers also allow the person to use a little of every mutant power.

**3:** So pretty much when he gets emotional is when he can't control his powers. During the attack on the institute he was calm, but with his brother it's another story. I wouldn't be calm if I was in Zexion's shoes

**4:** I had to.

**5:** So if he says the word Reject then that mutant's powers reject them for a short period of time. This is what he was doing to when Roxas' powers were going haywire.

**6: **Yes Marluxia was there when attacking the institute. Marluxia, Riku and Terra weren't seen because their powers are long range, whereas Larxene's is short range. Try guessing Marly's powers!

**7:** I had to

**8: **Okay, so Ventus has power over the elements, but he can only really control wind for obvious reasons. His name means wind and that is his element in BbS. So he can talk with the elements, but only wind for now. XD bombass yo!

**9:** I had to put his cards in somehow! So pretty much he transfers illusions to the cards and they kind of create this mist that causes anyone to fall into illusion trap.

**10:** Again, I've never been to New York so don't kill me. But I think the observation deck would be closed during a crazy ass storm and for story purposes as well. Can't have people in the line of fire.

**11:** I feel sorry for Sora because I kind of don't give him cool powers. So I'm slowly making his powers better. We'll see.

**12:** So another limit for Zexion's powers is that he can't say anything that would change his powers, appearance, etc. He can say things like "lightning" and it will be summoned, but he can't say "I have ___ powers." or something along the lines of that.

**13:** I was thinking of the Incredibles, Robin, Sailor moon. don't judge

**14:** so when he is emotional his powers don't always work. Of course, when he is calm most of the time his powers work and he doesn't have any control over stopping them for the most part.

**15:** The three furries, from Greek Mythology

**16: **Again, because of Zexion's emotions he can't keep his brother's powers sealed for a long time

**17:** The four harpies from Greek Mythology

Okay, done with footnotes. . Please don't kill me for hurting Zexion or leaving you on the worst cliffhanger ever. I will try to post the next chapter soon so you don't have to wait that long, but we'll see.

Until my next installment,

~Byes


	9. Memories in the Rain: Nocturne

**A/N:** It might get a little confusing, but the chapter starts out with what Demyx, Reno and Axel are doing eventually leading up to where the last chapter left off. Yes, you'll have to wait a little to see what happens to poor Zexion. There is a lot of Zexion/ Demyx in this chapter, two flashbacks, a lot of music stuff, and a bunch of footnotes again so you've been warned. ~Enjoy

* * *

**~9~**

**Memories in the Rain: Nocturne**

_An hour earlier [before the end of the last chapter]_

Demyx sat there tapping his pencil on the desk annoyed that time was going by so slowly. It not only threw his constant rhythm off, but also made him more frustrated knowing that Zexion was in danger. He knew that if Sephiroth was anywhere near that Zexion would be automatically targeted by the crazy gray haired man which was why he asked Axel and Reno for help. They had all agreed to meet after third period, if it ever finished, and go to New York without permission. The worried look that Namine had been wearing the entire morning couldn't mean anything good was going to happen giving him more of a reason to go to New York. His blue eyes glanced over at the clock realizing he still had ten minutes before he could even think about finding Zexion. He didn't even have the faintest clue as to where to look in the huge city, but he knew he would find him… he had to. To help pass the time he thought about the first time he met Zexion six years ago.

_Flashback: December 31, 2004: Demyx 10, Zexion 9_

_Demyx let out a frustrated sigh as he made his way to the music room to let out some of his aggravation from the events that had just taken place during his winter vacation. He had only been at the institute for a couple of days now, but he already knew where the music room was since that was the only place he went all those days. The other 'students' tended to keep their distance from him after he almost flooded the entire building telling everyone to just leave him alone. Normally he wouldn't act in such a manner, but the events that led up to him staying at the institute gave him reasons to act the way he was at the moment. _

_He turned left entering the hall that had a music room, art room and theater only to hear someone failing horribly at playing the piano. Cringing at the noise, the dirty blonde ran the length of the hallway, opened the door as quietly as possible and looked in to see who attempting to play the piano. A small boy with blue hair was sitting at the piano looking frustrated that he couldn't figure out what keys were which._

_The door made a soft thud as it closed causing the small boy seated at the piano turned around with one blue eye glancing over at Demyx before looking away ashamed. The blue haired boy let out a sigh as he shuffled his sheet music together preparing to leave only to feel a hand on his shoulder keeping him from getting up._

"_I can help you if you want," Demyx offered taking a seat next to the blue haired boy forgetting about his current issues. He noticed the boy flinched at his touch and scooted away from him when he sat down. _

"_I promise I won't bite," the dirty blonde haired boy laughed as he arranged the sheet music in order. He skimmed over it with an amused smile wondering why the boy sitting next to him would want to play music from Princess Mononoke, but figured at least the boy had some good taste in music. It wasn't any of the great classics, but at least Miyazaki was a modern classic. (**1**)_

"_Do you know how to read music?" Demyx asked trying to get a feel as to where to start. The bluenette nodded his head avoiding eye contact by just staring at his gloved hands. "Do you know what keys are which?" The smaller boy shook his head looking away a bit ashamed as if he should know it._

"_Well," Demyx smiled, "Since you can read music I'm assuming you are either a singer or you play another instrument. Which one is it?" The bluenette didn't say anything, but simply pointed over towards a violin currently in its case._

"_Violin huh?" the older boy grinned, "You seemed more like a singer to me. I'm sure you have a pretty voice." This caused the younger boy to shake his head while covering his mouth with a wide eye acting as if he was afraid to even speak._

"_You don't talk?" Demyx asked raising an eyebrow as the bluenette nodded his answer. "I'm sure you have your reasons, but let me tell you a little secret." This caused the younger boy to give Demyx a questioning look._

"_You can speak through music," Demyx smiled, "Music always tells a story. So since you don't speak let music speak for you. I'll teach you, but first we must learn the keys." He placed his pointer finger on the middle 'C' key, "This is the middle C key. Know this key and everything else is pretty easy. Then you have the black key which is C sharp or D flat. After that is obviously the D key. Make sense so far?" The bluenette nodded his head as he listened to the older boy go through the rest of the keys. (**2**)_

"_After that it just repeats itself." The dirty blonde haired boy said. "So as long as you can find the middle C key you can find the rest. Try playing the C major scale." The younger boy nodded chicken pecking each key of the C scale._

"_And the now the F major scale," Demyx encouraged to see if the blue haired boy would remember the correct black key to hit to make a B flat. To his surprise the other boy did it perfectly even though he was still using two fingers to play the scale. "Try going through all the major scales." Again, the other boy went through all the major scales perfectly without a single hesitation. _

"_Try playing the F sharp major chord using only one hand." the dirty blonde instructed watching the other boy hesitate for a brief second to arrange his fingers to the correct keys before pressing them down._

"_Good," Demyx beamed, "Now try to play the D minor chord with both hands in a different octave." The younger boy nodded as he did what he was told playing the D minor chord in two different octaves. The older boy nodded in approval urging him to do it with all the major and minor chords._

"_You're a natural," said the dirty blonde, "Now try playing the first measure of the top line." The bluenette simply nodded playing the first measure of the top line flawless as Demyx played the bottom line. "You play the top, I'll play the bottom and then you'll play both so I can teach you how to use the pedals that let you lengthen and shorten notes. Ready?" The younger boy nodded as the older boy counted off. They played the piece once through together and then the younger boy played it by himself with the same flawlessness of when they played it together._

"_That was amazing!" Demyx exclaimed happily, "It sounded like you have been playing the piano for years! I'm Demyx by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier." He held out his hand for the other boy to shake. The boy looked at the friendly hand thoughtfully before shaking it. _

"_Zexion." Said the younger boy looking away as a blush crept across his face._

"_I had fun Zexion," said the dirty blonde, "Thank you for making me feel better." Zexion looked up at Demyx wondering why he was being thanked when he did nothing. Seeing the younger boy's confusion he let out a small chuckle._

"_I have only been at the institute for five days," Demyx explained with a sigh, "It's been hard trying to deal with everything. You know that tsunami that killed all those people five days ago? (**3**)" Zexion nodded remembering it being on every television and radio channel for days. The dirty blonde gave him a sad smile as he looked out the window into the night sky._

"_I was the one that killed all those people my father included." Demyx admitted, "Professor Eraqus said that it wasn't entirely my fault since there was an underwater earthquake, but the tsunami wouldn't have been as bad if I hadn't been in the water. It was as if I was pulling the water farther and farther onto the land when I should have been trying to keep it away. I was able to save my mother somehow, but she can't even look at me anymore. She always knew that I had these mutant powers and accepted them until now." He felt a gloved finger touch his cheek wiping away the tears he didn't know he had been crying. _

"_I killed both my parents," Zexion said looking a little afraid after he spoke those words._

"_You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Demyx smiled wiping away the rest of the tears. "I'm sure it must be hard for you too, but my mother always told me that if something is bothering you that you should tell it to someone and it makes you feel better. I feel a little better now that I told you." He watched the bluenette bite his lower lip before touching Demyx's forehead saying "See," The moment the word was uttered Demyx saw what happened to Zexion four years ago as if he was there. Afterward, Demyx took Zexion's hand in his own with a sad smile._

"_Looks like you've had it rough too," said the dirty blonde. "At least we can deal with this together. Let's be friends okay?" Zexion nodded with a small smile._

"_Best friends," Zexion bravely said. (**4**)_

"_Forever," Demyx added with a bright smile._

_End Flashback_

The bell rang startling Demyx slightly as he wondered how it had already been ten minutes, but he wasn't complaining. He quickly shoved his textbook and notebook into his backpack and darted out the door to the parking lot where he was meeting Axel and Reno. Naturally Reno was already there in the driver's seat of Axel's car flipping through all of Kairi's CDs that were in the car.

"Geeze," Reno frowned, "I swear all this girl listens to is girly stuff. How the hell can Axel even put up with listening to this and where the hell are his CDs." He flipped through two Lady Gaga CDs, two Taylor Swift CDs, three Beyonce CDs, six Brittney Spears CDs and ten Celine Dion CDs. He cringed the further he got in Kairi's CD case as they got worse when he got to Backstreet boys, Nsync and the Spice Girls. (**5**) All the older CDs must have been Aqua's doing since he had only heard of them from her and now she was getting his younger sister to listen to it. Why the poisonous bluenette liked listening to songs not from her generation, he would never know. It only bothered him that she was dragging Kairi into the mess.

"Hey Reno," Demyx smiled hopping into the back seat, "Where is Axel?"

"Late like always," Reno frowned rolling his eyes obviously agitated that his twin was so slow. As if summoned Axel opened the passenger door getting in with a heavy sigh before closing the door. Reno hit the gas backing out of the spot, speeding out of the parking lot, and down the street.

"Sorry," the green eyed redhead apologized, "Stupid Principal Raven (**6**) was giving me a lecture about running in the halls. I swear that witch has it out for me because there were other people running in the halls too, but she only stopped me."

"Maybe you shouldn't set the trashcans on fire," Demyx suggested with a teasing grin.

"That was only one time!" Axel argued turning around to face Demyx, "It's not my fault that I was sick and spewing fire like a dragon. (**7**) And nothing bad happened because you put it out before it got out of control. I couldn't stay home sick either because I had a test that day. You know that Mr. Burns (**8**) makes the test harder if you miss it."

"Will you two shut up?" Reno sighed, "I am trying to drive here at light speed in traffic (**9**). Don't need you two bickering like a married couple. Or would you rather get in a crash that none of us can walk away from?" The two passengers both shut up without any complaints remembering that Reno needed to focus. The car started to slow down as they hit the heavier traffic that always surrounded New York and it being around lunch time didn't help matters either.

"God I hate New York," Reno complained honking the horn for no other reason but frustration. "There is never enough room to move even when you are walking! Remind me why you two made me come with you again. Oh that's right your secret crushes might be in trouble and you couldn't get here quick enough without my help."

"Shut up Reno," the green eyed twin retorted, "You know you would have done the same if your boyfriend Rude was in trouble."

"He isn't my boyfriend!" the blue eyed twin disputed, "We are just really good friends okay! How many times do I have to tell you and Kairi that?"

"Stop bickering," Demyx sighed, "Just park the damn car somewhere, pay for the parking and we'll go on foot. We aren't getting anywhere now and you've done your part in getting us to New York in less than an hour without getting caught by the police."

"Sweet mother of all that is flammable," Axel shouted, "You seriously want to leave my car in some parking structure in New York City? Have you lost your fucking mind?"

"Would you rather babysit your car or go protect Roxas who still doesn't have his powers for another hour or so?" the blue eyed twin asked knowing the answer he was going to receive.

"Fine," Axel grumbled, "Roxas is more important than my car anyways."

"What is that?" Demyx asked leaning into the passenger front seat looking at the huge dark clouds forming over the Empire State Building in the distance.

"If you got your mullet head out of my face maybe I could see," the green eyed redhead snapped shoving the dirty blonde back into the backseat. He looked out his window at the storm clouds that didn't look at all natural. It was obvious something bad was happening there and they needed to get there quick.

"Fuck it," Axel growled opening his door in the middle of the street and exiting the car resulting in a bunch of angry honks which he just proceeded to flip them off. "Just leave the damn car here we don't have time to look for parking."

"I'll go find a spot and catch up to you two." Reno grinned, "We all know that you are slow as hell, shouldn't be too hard. Now go." Demyx nodded and exited the car as well following Axel to the sidewalk which was almost as bad as the streets.

"Too bad I can't do what Frozone does in the Incredibles just yet. (**10**)" Demyx sighed trying not to lose sight of Axel who seemed to just push his way through the crowd not caring about the angry gestures and shouts he was receiving. It took them nearly twenty minutes to navigate their way through the busy sidewalks of New York to the base of the Empire State Building, but then they had another dilemma, getting up to the 102nd floor when it was closed to the public.

"I could fly up there," the green eyed redhead stated, "but I couldn't take you or Reno with me…"

"I could run up the building," Reno suggested suddenly appearing next to the two other mutants. "I've run up buildings before."

"I can fly up there," the dirty blonde stated, "I just need water to form wings of ice first. Hopefully I can keep them formed long enough to get up there. I've never tried to fly that far before."

"Great," Axel smirked, "we can all get there on our own. Now all we need is a distraction. Demyx, care to flood the streets for us?"

"With pleasure," Demyx grinned focusing on bringing so much pressure to the nearby fire hydrants that they suddenly burst raining water down on everyone. Using the water he formed wings out of it then freezing it to make them solid enough to fly. He didn't quite know how he could fly with wings of ice since they didn't look like normal wings, but it didn't matter. Reno took off towards the building using his super speed to defy all laws of gravity while Axel formed fire underneath his feet like rocket boots to send him flying into the sky. (**11**) The three of them reached the top of the Empire State Building at the exact same time Luxord, Roxas, Sora and Ventus did and also at the exact moment that Sephiroth stabbed Zexion through the chest. Zexion coughed up blood wincing from the pain shooting through his body refusing to scream since it would only give his older brother more satisfaction. Sephiroth pulled his sword out laughing as he watched the bluenette fall from the sky down towards the observation deck.

Luxord closed his eyes commanding time to stop around Zexion's wound so it wouldn't get any worse and hopefully save the boy's life. The image of a clock appeared on Zexion's wound freezing time around it for the time being, but he could only hold it for so long since the powers of time were tricky and required a lot of energy.

"Zexion!" Demyx screamed flying over to the falling blue winged boy and catching him mid fall. "Zexion! Don't fall asleep, listen to my voice." He landed on the observation deck immediately melting his wings and transferring the water to his hands. With his water powers he could heal wounds, but this was the first time he would try to heal such a serious wound and he didn't know if he could. (**12**)

Reno and Axel glanced at each other knowing they needed to keep Sephiroth away so that Demyx could focus on healing Zexion. Roxas wished he had his shadow powers so he could take them to the shadow world where no one would be in danger, but he still didn't have them. Sora and Ventus were about to attack when Reno placed a firm hand on both of their shoulders shaking his head.

"We going to use it?" Axel asked his twin with a grin summoning fire the palms of his hand.

"Of course twin," Reno said returning the grin with one of his own. "Only the Fair twins could pull it off. Ready when you are." The green eyed twin nodded summoning so much fire around him that it looked like he was on fire. The blue eyed twin started running around in a circle creating a mini cyclone of wind that absorbed the fire only making it bigger the faster he went. When the large fire cyclone was large enough to fit a double-decker plane in it they redheaded twins launched it at Sephiroth causing him to be engulfed in flames. (**13**) Reno came to an abrupt stop crashing into his twin causing both to tumble over and end up lying on their backs next to each other.

"Demyx…" Zexion whispered trying to control his breathing, but each breath he took hurt more than the previous one.

"Yeah it's me," the dirty blonde smiled softly placing his water covered hand over Zexion's chest focusing on healing the wound. "Stay with me Zexion. Play our song in your head. Visualize the keys on the piano and play our song. Don't lose consciousness." Zexion nodded remembering when they had created their song together.

_Flashback:: Zexion 11, Demyx 12_

_Zexion sat at the piano listening as Demyx explained how to express emotions through music. He was surprised that he opened up so quickly to Demyx when he had completely ignored everyone else at the institute for four years. There was something about Demyx that made him feel better, but he didn't know why. They had been friends for almost two years now, but it felt like they knew each other much longer than that. The older boy just smiled as they started composing different songs using music instead of words to talk to each other. _

"_You know," Demyx smiled, "We should write a song together. It could be our song that no one else knows." Zexion smiled as he nodded his head waiting for Demyx to start. "We'll start together. You play the higher octaves and I'll play the lower ones. Don't worry, it might sound funny at first, but after a few measures we'll compose something great." The younger boy just nodded as the older one counted off before they started playing. Even though they had no idea what they were each going to play the melody and harmony ended up fitting together perfectly. Zexion closed his eyes letting the music come to him listening how Demyx's music completed his, it was beyond perfect. The song came to an end and the younger boy opened his eyes looking at Demyx._

"_I told you it would work," the older boy beamed. "What should we call it?" Zexion just shrugged having no idea what to name such a beautiful song; it felt almost a shame to even give it a name._

"_We'll think of one later then," Demyx grinned, "Let's play it again." The two boys continued to play the song for hours after that memorizing both parts the described their relationship._

_End flashback_

"We did good twin," Reno smiled as he looked over at his twin lying next to him. Axel was about to answer when his phone went off with the ringtone of the 'one winged angel' the exact moment Sephiroth emerged from the flames untouched. (**14**)

"Aw fuck," Axel growled looking up at the black winged angel surrounded by flames forgetting about his phone still playing the ominous melody. "That bastard just doesn't seem to take a hint." His green eyes looking into his twin's blue eyes knowing that neither of them had the strength to do another attack like the one they had just delivered. Demyx and Luxord were helping Zexion, Roxas didn't have his powers back and Sora and Ventus weren't ready to go up such an enemy. He really didn't like their odds and hoped that the white winged angel that was supposedly the triplet's older brother would show up.

Sephiroth looked down at the other mutants noticing that the mullet styled haired one looked like he was trying to heal Zexion. This didn't please him in the slightest because other people were interfering with his plans. They would soon learn what happened to those who tried to interfere with his plans and made him angry. Once again, he raised his left hand parallel to the ground tearing open the sky to summon chaos creatures. Out of the ripped sky came forth four fire breathing bronze bulls, a giant winged sow and a two-headed two-serpent tailed dog. The worst was a horrible monster that had the body of a woman and serpent's tail. Her tail was wreathed in snakes and her serpentine body was arrayed with a thousand snake's tails for feet. She was armed with a giant scorpion's sting, black wings and around her waist were arrayed the heads of fifty wild beasts. (**15**) The moment the beasts were summoned a bullet went through each of them sending the monsters back to the Warp world of chaos. Before the gray haired man could even comprehend what had happened he lifted his sword to block the large sword belonging to the white winged angel.

"So you did chose to show up," the black winged angel mused as their swords clashed. The blonde angel didn't say anything just narrowed his masked eyes as he pushed himself away to face his enemy. (**16**) The two winged men stared at each other until lightning struck the top of the Empire State Building signaling the start of the battle. Both of the winged men charged forward resulting in the clashing of their swords sending dark matter to disperse everywhere with blinding flashes of white and black.

Ventus, Sora, and Roxas looked up and watched as their brother fought Zexion's brother with wide eyes. The two older brothers seemed evenly matched, neither able to deliver a hit. Each time the two swords made contact dark matter rained down on them some of the larger chunks actually melting parts of the building. There was fire, water, lightning, wind, and monsters summoned between the two chaos gifted mutants, but they always canceled each other's attacks out. Teleportation, invisibility, the stopping of time was used by both neither able to use any of the powers long enough to gain an advantage. (**17**) That was until Sephiroth sent a powerful beam of dark matter aiming towards Ventus, Sora, and Roxas.

Cloud closed his wings to give him speed as he skydived down to protect his younger brothers. At the last second he opened his wings, landed and sliced through the dark matter as if it was nothing more than cheese. Sephiroth had taken the opportunity to use the dark matter as a distraction so when Cloud sliced through the last of it Sephiroth was there. He thrust his sword towards Cloud, but the white winged angel was quick enough to keep the attack from being fatal. The black winged angel's sword went through Cloud's right shoulder.

"Wind, lend me your strength," Ventus whispered focusing on summoning the powers of the wind causing Sephiroth to be pushed forcefully away from Cloud getting stuck in the sky from the wind making it hard to fly. Sora blew into the palms of his hand creating mini sun like objects and threw them at Sephiroth. On impact they exploded with the force of a nuclear explosion which Sora contained around the black winged angel. Roxas felt his powers return to him as he closed his eyes trying to aim his hexing powers towards Sephiroth. Instead of hexing the gray haired man large shadow creatures emerged engulfing him completely. (**18**) When the explosion, wind and shadows disappeared Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen and the unnatural storm clouds above the Empire State Building disappeared leaving only the natural clouds that started to rain.

"He's not dead," Cloud said turning to his three younger brothers with a smile. "but you were all amazing. I'm proud of you." With that said he took off into the sky leaving the triplets there just staring at the sky as their brother's figure disappeared. (**19**)

Demyx bit his lower lip getting frustrated that he didn't have enough control over the healing part of his powers. He knew that Luxord could freeze time for much longer and once he stopped he wouldn't have enough time to heal Zexion's wound.

"Zexion," Demyx whispered bringing his face close so that their noses almost touched. "I'm going to let you take my powers that way you can heal yourself." Zexion's eyes widened as he shook his head not wanting to hurt Demyx.

"It's okay," the water mutant smiled, "I know you won't hurt me. Besides, I don't have enough knowledge to heal such a wound so this is the only other solution."

"Demyx…" the bluenette whispered as tears started to fill his eyes.

"Don't cry," Demyx pleaded, "It's not like I'm going to die or anything. I'll just take a nice long nap and get out of school for two days. I think that is a good thing if you ask me. I hate school and I love naps so it's a win, win situation." He gave Zexion a bright smile before whispering, "I love you Zexion." Their lips met as they kissed and Zexion absorbed Demyx's powers. The dirty blonde haired teen pulled away giving Zexion a smile before fainting in his arms. Zexion closed his eyes as he controlled the water to heal his wound with amazing speed not even leaving any trace of blood. He looked down at Demyx's sleeping face remembering when they created their song together and finally agreeing on a name. Memories in the Rain: Nocturne.

* * *

**A/N:**

**1: **Princess Mononoke music is amazing. Enough said.

**2: **This is how I learned how to play the piano and yes, my main instrument is the violin

**3:** Yes I'm blaming Demyx for the 2004 tsunami just like I blamed Ventus for the crazy weather in Southern California

**4: **So Zexion does talk sometimes to Demyx because he feels calm and we all know water has calming effects. And just because Demyx and Zexion are married. XD hahaha

**5: **This is my one friend's cd collection. Believe me, I only listed a small chunk of it. Also, we all know Axel would let Kairi chose what to listen to all the time and when she wasn't in the car he would just listen to the radio....or lady gaga

**6: **Yes this is the person filling Mystique's spot. Try to guess which character I am going to use.

**7:** I just found it really amusing and could see it happening to poor Axel too if he ever got a cold.

**8: **I had to.

**9: **So Reno has super speed, but he isn't limited to just speeding himself up. He can transfer it to anything for the most part. I had to give him something else because truthfully super speed is an over used power. So I changed it up a bit.

**10: **Maybe Demyx will get to that point, but not yet. Yes, I don't separate ice and water, but it is the same thing just in different states**. **

**11: **Okay, let's start with Reno. Since he has super speed he can run along vertical things as well and defy all laws of gravity as long as he is running on something, this means he can run on water like Dash from the incredibles. I was just watching the movie okay. Don't judge me.

Next we have Demyx. Well since water can't really 'fly' I gave him the ability to create ice wings to use. Kind of like Hitsugaiya from Bleach.

Lastly we have Axel. So we have seen time and time again that people with fire powers can fly. Of course, Axel will probably have hole in the bottom of his shoes, but that's beside the point.

**12: **So water is assosiated with healing sometimes so I took the liberty to give Demyx some healing powers. Granted he is still learning, and can't heal larger wounds yet.

**13: **Gotta have an attack with the twins. XD

**14: **I seriously, seriously had to. It was just too perfect

**15: **All from greek mythology. The first were made my Hephaestus, the second is the calydonian boar, the thrid is the orthros dog and the last one is Campe, a Dracaenae.

**16: **He is wearing a mask like Sephiroth because they are cool like that.

**17: **Chaos powers allow them to have a little bit of all mutant powers. However, say if Sephiroth used just water powers against Demyx, he would lose because Demyx's control over water is greater. The thing that makes chaos powers so powerful is that the have a little of all mutant powers. If that makes any sense.

**18: **So yeah, the triplets are using their powers again. I'm giving Sora some better powers and yes, Roxas just learned something new.

**19: **Because Cloud can and probably would.

Okay, so yes, a lot of footnotes, a few flashbacks, a lot of Demyx/Zexion love and a lot of mutant smackdown. Hell yeah. So the next chapter will probably contain some training time and I will introduce the 'brotherhood' and the person filling in for Mystique. I want you to try and guess who it will be and what powers Marluxia and Larxene have. I kind of gave you a clue as to Marluxia's powers, but none for Larxene. So happy guessing.

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	10. Unknown

**A/N:** Okay, I just wanted to thank everyone that reviews. You are all my inspiration to keep writing... that an X-men evolution. Yes, I'll admit it, I've been watching it a lot recently which is why I haven't been updating my other stories. I'm such a bad person, I know. Just a heads up, I am kind of going off the apocalypse thing in this chapter, with the all powerful mutant, blah, blah, blah. Also, you might notice some references to Greek mythology yet again dealing with the the three realms, they can also be seen as part of the christian religion as well, hint, heaven, hell, earth. yeah. anyways, I hope you like this chapter. ~Enjoy

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**~10~**

**Unknown**

A tall slender woman covered in black clothing with trims of purple entered the dark room where she awaited to talk to her superior. Long red nails tapped impatiently against her hips while her golden cat like eyes scanned the room for any movement of human shaped figures. Her thin red lips pushed together showing displeasure at having to wait even for a second on anyone, even her superior.

A door on the opposite side of the room opened as the dark silhouette appeared of the person she had been waiting for. The heavily caped figure closed the door, made hisy to the center of the room and sat down at the desk resting his chin on his intwined hands waiting for her report.

"I have been keeping a close eye on those at the Mickey Institute." reported the woman gingerly sitting on the arm of one of the visitor chairs crossing her legs as she does so showing off her light bluish-green skin. "I think you'll find the three new additions interesting. They are triplets and together they wield the powers over the three worlds. The one named Ventus has powers of the realm of the Earth though he has yet to master three of the four elements. The one named Sora appears to have control over light though it would seem that no one knows that, not even himself. The one named Roxas has power over the shadows and can even enter the shadow world and summon the creatures that live there, but his powers seem to be hard to control especially his hexing powers."

"So they have finally been reborn," said a deep masculine voice. "We will need to get them out of Eraqus' grasps so we can use them to rid this world of stupid humans."

"Why do you need them?" asked the woman, "Your two sons are far more powerful. I've been watching your youngest and he has already obtained the powers over the shadows. I think..."

"Silence!" demanded the man's voice as everything metal started to float around the room. "You forget that he doesn't know that he was adopted and although he is powerful, his control is limited. Also, he can never absorb the powers of the Earth. The elements protect the mutant that wield them."

"No control over his own powers maybe," stated the woman, "but over the powers he absorbs he had complete control over. He recently absorbed the power over water after fighting his older brother so obviously he can absorb the powers of the Earth. Or do you forget that he is also at the Mickey Institute so I have been watching him as well."

"It may seem that way," the man informed the woman sitting in front of him, "but only the original mutant can completely control their own powers. As for the elements, it would seem the water mutant gave him his powers willingly. There is no other way for him to absorb the elements."

"And your oldest?" the woman inquired raising a delicately thin eyebrow.

"He won't listen to anyone," the man growled, "Especially me." The woman shrugged absent-mindedly waving her hand towards the dark figure.

"Should I tell the children to collect the triplets?" she hummed looking at her nails with her hand out in front of her. "I can always take your youngest out of the picture for the time being. Without him, Riku could easily overpower them."

"No," said the man as he stood up turning to face the way he came with his hands behind his back. "Just bring me the shadow wielding mutant for now. His ability to get to the shadow world will be quite helpful. As for my youngest do what you must to make sure he doesn't interfere."

"Why the one that controls the shadows?" she asked hopping down from the chair's arm. "Wouldn't the one controlling the elements be more powerful?"

"No," the man growled, "Although the elements repel my younger son's powers they cannot repel the powers of light and dark. In truth the powers of the elements is the weakest of the three. Light and Dark can use their powers in all realms, whereas the elements only work in the realm of the Earth. Now leave." Her yellow eyes followed the figure until he disappeared into the door he came from. Now that she was alone, the woman turned back to the door she had entered throw changing her form. She was now pale skinned, red haired and green eyed wearing a business looking tan dress with black rimmed glasses. The form that many knew as Principal Raven.

**~0~**

Zexion kneeled down and rested his head on Demyx's bed with a small sigh lacing their fingers together. He hadn't left the water mutant's side once since the incident at the Empire State Building. There was no doubt in his mind that this was entirely his fault. If he hadn't run off without the others they might have been able to fight Sephiroth off without anyone getting seriously hurt. Tears started to build up behind his eyes as he buried his face into the sheets wishing he had never taken Demyx's powers. Kairi walked over to the bluenette placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"You should eat something," the maroon haired girl suggested with a soft smile, "Demyx will only scold you when he wakes up." She offered him a sandwich she had asked Reno to make since she didn't want to leave the room. She was one of the few people that Zexion actually talked to mainly because of her powers and by default they had become very close friends because of it.

"I'm fine," Zexion sighed, "Thank you Kairi, for staying here. I wouldn't be able to hold his hand if you weren't here." He looked at his ungloved hand holding the sleeping teen's hand. It was frustrating that he couldn't touch anyone unless Kairi was around, but he was grateful that she always seemed to be there when he needed her. She reminded him of how Sephiroth was before he had changed because of his powers.

"You're welcome," Kairi smiled, "Although, you really should eat something. Demyx is fine, look he is even drooling in his sleep like he always does." She motioned towards the drool sliding down Demyx's chin from his open mouth. This caused Zexion to crack a small smile knowing that it was how the older teen always slept; everyone in the institute knew it. Kairi offered him the sandwich again hoping he would at least eat something since all they could do was to wait for Demyx to wake up. She frowned when the bluenette declined the sandwich again with the shake of his head. The dirty blonde yawned starting to stir and rubbing drowsiness from his eyes.

"That was a good nap," Demyx yawned as he sat stretching his arms realizing that his hand was holding someone else's. His blue eyes looked to the right spotting Zexion holding his hand looking upset about something. Kairi smiled and exited the room to give them some alone time, but remained just outside the door to keep Zexion's powers nullified. She took out her red IPod nano, put her red headphones in her ears and listened to her music.

"Hey Mr. Grumpy gills," Demyx grinned leaning closer to Zexion, "When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do?" He grabbed Zexion's other hand as he got off the bed pulling him up into a dance, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim."

"D-demyx," Zexion blinked completely confused. "Y-You should be resting. Don't you have a headache?" Demyx just gave Zexion a smile wrapping his arms around the younger teen.

"I'm just happy," the dirty blonde sighed contently tightening his hug, "I...I didn't know if my idea would work… you have to promise me never to put me through that again." He thought of all the things that could have gone wrong with his idea and thankfully none of them happened. Zexion was in his arms alive and well.

"I promise…" Zexion smiled returning the hug. "I'm sorry for taking your powers and knocking you out…" He knew that he would probably always feel guilty for taking Demyx's powers even if he had permission to do so.

"It's fine," Demyx chuckled, "I had a nice long nap. Besides, I gave you permission to take my powers and knock me out so all is forgiven."

"I still feel bad," the bluenette admitted burying his face into Demyx's chest. "If I hadn't been stupid this never would have happened."

"Don't worry about it," the dirty blonde smiled. "I probably would have given you my powers eventually anyways." He hooked a finger underneath Zexion's chin gently coaxing him to look up. "I don't care what your powers are and what they do. I would still kiss you even if Kairi wasn't around."

"But you would still be knocked unconscious." Zexion stated as tears filled his eyes.

"You'll learn to control it," Demyx reassured him wiping the tears from the younger teen's eyes, "We'll work on it together just like our song. Truthfully though, if I didn't willing give you my powers you wouldn't have been able to take them or even knock me unconscious."

"What do you mean?" the bluenette asked with wide eyes. The only person that his powers didn't work on way Kairi, but then again, no one's powers worked around Kairi.

"Water always protects me," the water mutant grinned, "It always has and always will." His eyes brightened in amusement as he gazed upon the confused expression that painted Zexion's face. He put his pointer finger up telling the younger teen to hold on for a second as he opened the door to see Kairi still outside. A small tap on her shoulder was all it took to get her attention. She took out her earphones looking up at Demyx questionably.

"Are you two okay?" asked the maroon haired girl tilting her head to the side.

"We're fine," Demyx grinned, "But I was wondering if you could leave. I wanted to show Zexion something." Kairi nodded smiling brightly before skipping off down the hall to her own room. Demyx closed the door and turned to see a very confused looking Zexion.

"Why?" Zexion asked grabbing his gloves out of his pant pockets starting to slip them on. He didn't know why the older teen would send away the one person that would let them touch each other freely. Before he could put on his left glove Demyx grabbed his hand creating skin to skin contact. His eyes widened in fear as he looked down at their hands and then up at Demyx expecting him to be unconscious, but dirty blonde was just smiling.

"Didn't I tell you," answered the water mutant, "Water always protects me. I only gave you the healing part of my powers. I only became unconscious because I had to keep the water from protecting me from you. It is actually a lot harder than it sounds." A nervous chuckle escaped his lips as his raised his other hand behind his head.

"When? How?" Zexion asked looking down at their hands intwining their fingers together.

"When you had your fever," Demyx admitted looking away with a slight blush. "You know, after you absorbed Roxas' powers. I kind of touched you face because I wanted to know if the water would protect me from your powers...it did. Axel was even to able to touch your forehead without having his powers absorbed so he was able to get your fever down quicker. I think it has something to do with the four elements..." Zexion smiled as he leaned closer to Demyx placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"Thank you," the younger teen smiled. Demyx gently kissed away the tears that were staining the bluenette's face then finding his lips. Water appeared from nowhere surrounding both of them protecting them from the poisonous darts that were shot at them. A protective arm wrapped around Zexion their attacker finally stepped through the window. Her cat yellow eyes narrowed as her red lips curled upwards in amusement.

"Well," the light bluish green skinned woman smiled, "It seems I must have interrupted something." She leaned against the window seal, eyes never leaving the two mutants in front of her.

"Maleficent," Zexion growling narrowing his eyes. The water continued to float around them as if ready for any attack. Demyx knew the water would protect them, but there was a limit of how well it could without him controlling it. Although Maleficent's powers were only that of shape shifting and incredible flexibility, she was not someone to take lightly.

**~0~**

All the students, except Zexion, Demyx and Kairi, followed Professor Xaldin into the training field outside. They were all teamed up in pairs: Axel and Roxas, Namine and Sora, Reno and Ventus, Rude and Aqua. The tall black haired professor activated the training devices by pressing a button in the remote he carried with him in his pocket.

"Rude and Aqua," Xaldin said, "You two are up first." Aqua and Rude stepped forward at the start line both ready to make it through the course. "Remember, this is about team work. If your partner falls victim to any of the traps you both fail and will be required to have extra training sessions with Lexaeus." This caused all of the older students to groan in protest each dreading the thought of having to put up with Lexaeus intense training. The moment Xaldin gave the signal Aqua and Rude darted off already knowing what to expect with a few slight changes. Rude simply defended Aqua from anything that could cause physical damage with his metal body while Aqua disintegrated any traps that appeared hidden, but to her trained eye stood out. They reached the finish line without a single problem since they had done these exercises a million times.

"Good team work," Aqua grinned giving Rude a high five that she had to jump up to complete.

"Good," Xaldin nodded in approval. "Next up will be Namine and Sora." The blonde girl approached the start line with her sketchbook in hand followed by the brunette triplet. The professor pressed another button changing the course up and fixing the damage done by Rude and Aqua, mainly Aqua.

"Let's do our best," Sora beamed with a thumb up causing Namine to smile as she nodded. Her blonde hair fell into her face as she closed her eyes predicting the outcome of the exercise, they would be fine. Again, Xaldin gave the signal and the two made their way through the course, but much slower than Rude and Aqua. Sora defended Namine with beams of light while she directed Sora around the booby traps occasionally drawing some kind of wall to protect them from lasers that Sora missed. The brunette fell onto the grass on his back out of breath while Namine just took a seat on a nearby bench next to Aqua to watch the rest.

"You did well Sora," Namine smiled as she looked down at the brunette that gave her another thumbs up with a huge grin.

"Good," Xaldin commented pulling out a notebook jotting down a few notes. "Next up, Axel and Roxas." Axel grinned wrapping his arm around Roxas' shoulders leaning over a bit so their faces were at the same level.

"Our turn, Roxie" the green eyed redhead said excitedly. For some reason he had the gut feeling that things weren't going to be easy with the fire mutant as his partner. There was no doubt in his mind that Axel was good with his powers, but the laid back attitude was what worried him.

"Don't call me Roxie," Roxas growled trying to swat the redhead away from him. Even with the obvious signs of wanting to be left alone, Axel didn't take the hint only becoming more encouraged.

"Break it up," Xaldin frowned making notes in his notebook. "If you two don't I'll just send you to Lexaeus now." Axel immediately froze and backed away from the shadow mutant trying to pull off an innocent looking smile. This only caused the professor to shake his head heaving a sigh pressing the button on the remote changing the course again. "Go," he said as his eyes followed the two teens making their way through the course.

Roxas cautiously made his way through the course fading into the shadow world when something threatened him. His blue eyes followed Axel, who seemed to just walk through the course as if he was taking a stroll in the park. Every so often he would shoot balls of fire toward incoming objects or jump catlike over things that came out of the ground. The blonde came out of the shadow world about to cross the finish line with the redhead following closer behind when vines came out of the ground wrapping around him. Before he could shrink back into the shadows something like a static electric shock touched the back of his neck. His body wouldn't move and even his powers wouldn't work causing him to panic. This couldn't be part of the training exercise, could it?

"Roxas!" Axel shouted summoning chakrams of fire throwing them towards the vines instantly freeing Roxas. The vines shriveled back into the earth fearing the fire that surrounded and protected the shadow mutant. Axel ran over to Roxas easily picking him up as his green eyes scanned the area for the two people he knew were behind everything, Larxene and Marluxia. Plants started to attack everyone but Axel due to the fire surround him, but the electrical equipment that was used for training started to attack him. He summoned his chakrams once more repelling anything that managed to get through his fire barrier.

Aqua jumped fluidly through the attacking vines, branches and roots creating webs of acid to keep them from advancing on the institute. Namine stood back drawing a giant weed whacker to life cutting down the plants as if she was doing simple gardening. The ground started to shake as a large rocks were thrown taking out the weed whacker and aiming for Aqua. Rude stepped in front of the acid mutant shielding her from the rock that broke against his steel body. Xaldin summoned his rods of lightning aiming it towards the attackers trying to get them to lose their focus, but they would stop in the middle of the air, turn around and return. Sora and Ventus were helping each other out deflecting anything, but they couldn't do anything else. Reno darted through the maze of vines, around the incoming rocks and towards the four people that were attacking. He zoomed around the four creating a small tornado distracting them enough for the rest of the group to approach the four attackers. Axel stepped back so that his flames would protect Namine, Sora and Ventus as well letting the others battle with the four mutants.

"Ventus, Sora," the flame mutant said as the two tried to follow the older mutants, "Stay here. Larxene, Marluxia, Riku and Terra are all very powerful. You aren't ready for such a fight."

"He's right," Namine said drawing up walls when needed to protect people. "They can handle it." Her blue eyes glanced over towards Roxas through her blonde hair. "The paralyzation will be undone soon Axel, stop worrying." Roxas let out a groan as he moved his hand to the back of his neck where the electric shock had gotten him.

"Damn Larxene and her paralyzing powers," Axel growled glaring through the wall of fire that surrounded them. It bothered him that she only seemed to want to attack Roxas and no one else. Then there were the vines controlled by Marluxia that seemed only focused on grabbing the blonde until they were threatened by flames. The sound of glass breaking from the institute caused everyone, even Riku, Terra, Marluxia, and Larxene, to pause. A raven flew out of Demyx's window circling around the four attackers three times before taking off.

"Looks like it's time to go," the sliver haired mutant frowned as he created a barrier shielding them from the oncoming attacks. Terra nodded kneeling to the ground summoning large walls of earth allowing them to get away without any problems. Zexion and Demyx came out of the institute calmly watching the retreating enemies.

_'Xaldin'_ Professor Eraqus' voice said in the black haired professor's head, _'Tell Roxas and his brothers to meet me when he has recovered. Also makes sure that all the students are safely inside. After that meet me in my office. We need to discuss what is happening.'_

_'Yes Professor,_' Xaldin thought back as he walked over to Roxas.

"Roxas," Xaldin said walking up to Roxas who was now able to stand with Axel's help. "When you are well rested go see Professor Eraqus. Sora and Ventus, you will accompany him." He looked at the students returning everyone looking a bit tired after the encounter.

"Everyone is to return inside immediately." Xaldin ordered causing a few to sigh in disappointment. "No arguments otherwise you will be cleaning the Gummi ship with a toothbrush." No one wanted to clean the Gummi Ship with a toothbrush so they all hurried inside to avoid the punishment. With one last scan to makes sure all the students were inside, the black haired professor made his way to Professor Eraqus' office.

Xaldin walked into Professor Eraqus' office with Luxord and Lexaeus already there waiting for their meeting. It had to be serious if all of them were meeting together. He took a seat next to Lexaeus before he looked at Professor Eraqus. The head of the institute was standing next to the window looking outside at the damage done and making sure that the students were safely inside.

"It seems that my old friend is up to no good once again," Professor Eraqus said with a disappointed sigh. "I was hoping that he would give up his ideas of destroying any non-mutants, but it seems that I was wrong." He now turned to face the three people he put in charge to help him raise young mutants.

"When we were friends and studying about the mutant gene," the telepathic professor started, "we came to realize that there were always mutants in the world. It is found, time and time again, that these mutants were either ancient heroes, healer, seers and in many other roles as well. However, these ancient mutants aren't as important as the main three that have been written about on multiple accounts. Most times they are seen as gods, other times they are seen as great rulers or heroes.

"Some of the more recent finds about these three mutants have been hidden from the world by governments and religious leaders. Before we went our separate ways we were able to retrieve one of those lost scripts and on it told a story. It is said that three powerful mutant brothers, each controlling one of the three realms, will determine the fate of every living thing on the planet. Each realm is seen in religion and mythology, though there is much debate over which is correct. All that is known for sure is that the shadow realm holds all the memories of the past, the earth realm is all the thoughts of the present, and the light realm is all the visions of the future.

"You can see that those realms each resemble the powers of the Strife triplets and it looks like my old friends has noticed that too. It also means that someone has been watching us very closely to inform him of the triplet's powers." He let out a sigh as his deep brown eyes looked at his professors' faces that were mixed with emotions.

"I believe Maleficent has been behind the information." Lexeaus informed the three others, "On my way to help I found her fighting with Demyx and Zexion. There is no doubt that she has been watching us closely in some kind of animal form."

"It is also more than likely that she is leading the four young mutants as well," Luxord added.

"I must agree with Luxord on this," Xaldin nodded, "I saw her leaving Demyx's room and the four followed after her. She must be posing as someone in the school, but she could be a student or a teacher, we cannot be sure." Professor Eraqus nodded in agreement knowing that it was highly probable that she was going to school as well to keep an eye on her four also to lead them to drawing out the other mutant's powers.

"We must look into this," Professor Eraqus said, "We'll tell the students to be extra cautious around the four and to keep an eye out for who Maleficent is posing as." They all agreed before leaving that they would have to keep an extra eye on all the students to keep them safe as they began to understand the unknown powers of the triplets.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, I'll admit, this chapter was kind of rushed towards the end. I have a bad habit of doing that. Let us see if you can guess who Zexi's and Sephi's real daddy is. XD haha, I really had to. After all, Magneto has two kids so why not? And yes, I was watching finding nemo before writing this XD. My sister always calls it finding No one, because that is what nemo means in latin. Just a little cool fact for you all. Please review and let me know how you feel about this new plot line.

Also, I am going to have a contest for you all. Whoever has the 50th review will get a a oneshot written by me for them.

One last note, for all of you that have been reviewing thank you very much. Since you have all been so good to me each of you can chose a title that you want to see used in the future for this story. It is my way of saying thanks. Love you all!

Until my next installment.

~Byes


	11. The Awakening: Part I

**A/N: **Finally I get to update! XD yay. So I was going to write another mutant story...well, they aren't really mutants...but they have special powers. Anyways, I kind of put that in this chapter....but I think eventually I write the other story... I already have too many stories that need updating... I don't think I need another. Anyways, Enjoy

* * *

**~11~**

**The Awakening: Part I**

Roxas, Sora, and Ventus walked into professor Eraqus' office wondering why he only wished to talk to them. The office was filled with books shelves everywhere, most of the books were in Latin or Greek. There was one large three panel window behind the professor's desk with the curtains blocking out the light, not something the professor did often, but he needed to make sure no one was watching. Professor Eraqus watched as the triplets entered his office looking confused as to what was going on, and he knew they should be. It was a topic that he had hoped to avoid all together, but now that his old friend knew the three held those ancient powers of the three realms he needed to inform them. Afterwards, he would have to inform all the mutant students keep a look out for Mystique in their high school.

"Professor Xaldin told us to come see you?" Ventus asked as the triplets sat down in the chairs that waited for them in front of Professor Eraqus' desk. Roxas let out a sigh as he sat down still tired from the events that had happened a few hours ago. Axel had told him that it was because of Larxene's paralyzing powers that he couldn't move, which made sense, but he was still tired. Sora gave Roxas a nudge to keep him from falling asleep wondering if they should have waited a little longer for Roxas to rest before they went to see the professor.

"Yes," Professor Eraqus said standing up from his chair, "It is important that you know who you are and what you're powers consist of." He walked over to one of the many bookcases and pulled off the a book that was written in Greek. Skimming through the pages, he finally came to a stop of a picture that showed the division between the three realms of the world: Earth, Underworld and Sky. After setting that book down on his desk, he went to another book case pulling out another book. Once again, he skimmed through the book until he came upon a picture, only this time it showed heaven, Earth, and hell.

"Why are you showing us this?" Sora asked as he flipped through the book that was in English talking about the three realms of the Christian religion. Roxas looked at the picture in the book written in Greek, then looked at his two brothers thinking about each of their individual powers before looking back at the picture.

"Are you saying that we are like the gods or rulers of these realms?" Roxas asked no liking where this was going. If the three of them ruled the three realms, his was most likely the Underworld or Hell, everyone's favorite.

"Yes," the brown haired professor nodded taking the Greek book from the shadow wielding mutant. "It is said that in ancient times there were three brothers, each having powers over the three different realms." He pointed to the sky in the picture, "The brother with power over the realm of light was said to be able to see into the future." Next he pointed at the earth, "The brother with the power over the realm of the Earth knew what was happening anywhere in the world." Finally his finger made its way to the Underworld "And the last brother with the power over the shadow realm held all the secrets of the past."

"So those three brothers are us," Sora stated which caused the two blonde brothers to roll their eyes at him always pointing out the obvious.

"Yes," Professor Eraqus answered turning to look out the window. "I wasn't going to tell you until you were ready, but it seems that someone else has noticed."

"Is that why they were after Roxas?" Ventus asked glancing over at his brother. He remembered the vines going after Roxas, but he thought that it might of been because they thought the shadow powers were the most powerful. Now he began to wonder if he was wrong and they were targeting Roxas for other reasons.

"That means that someone is watching us," Roxas growled as he slouched in his chair starting to wish that his mutant power was a normal one, not one that gave him control over a whole realm. He had just started to be thankful for his powers after the whole Zexion and Sephiroth fiasco and now he didn't want them anymore.

"Maybe we should talk to Riku or Terra since they are in the brotherhood" Sora suggested once again proving that he was stupid (according to his brothers at least). "They were part of the group that attacked us so I'm sure they would know."

"Only problem poop head," Ventus said with the roll of his eyes, "They are probably working for that person. If they are, then they wouldn't tell us." The moment the name calling starts, is the moment the triplets break out into a full on sibling war of words. Professor Eraqus frowned in annoyance watching the three throw vulgar names back and forth at each other, each one worse that the previous.

"All of you quiet!" The professor shouted surprising the triplets because it was the first time they had ever heard him raise his voice. "We think that Maleficent is the leader and is posing as either as a student or teacher at your school. I am going to inform everyone to keep an eye out for her, but I want you three to be extremely careful. Don't go anywhere alone, do you understand?" The three Strife brothers nodded knowing that if they weren't in class that they were most likely with each other.

"You may leave," Professor Eraqus said with a sigh, "but just remember what each of your powers represent and be careful." He watched the three boys leave silently promising that he wouldn't let anything happen to any of them. It was clear what his former colleague's motives were and he would stop at nothing as long as it rid the world of humans. He pressed the P.A. button as he announced, "Everyone in the living room in ten minutes." Releasing the button he grabbed the two books and put them back before leaving his office to go to the living room where everyone was meeting. When he arrived all of the students and the three other professors were already there awaiting to see what was going to happen after the attack on the institute. The room went silent as Professor Eraqus entered, all eyes on him as he walked to the front of the room. Axel, Reno and Rude were standing towards the back of the room behind the couch where the Strife triplets sat, with Roxas in the middle. Namine was off in the far right corner of the room drawing in her sketch book on one of the many chairs. Zexion, Demyx, Kairi and Aqua sat on the second couch on the left side of the room closer to the door. Zexion and Demyx were sitting on one side, while Kairi and Aqua were on the other.

"It has come to our attention that Maleficent has been watching us," Professor Eraqus stated with his hands behind his back, "And that she has been controlling the brotherhood's actions in and out of school. We think that she might be posing as a student or teacher so we want you to be extra careful." Axel raised his hand up high even though he was standing behind one of the couches and could be easily seen. "Yes Axel?" the professor asked with a questioning eyebrow.

"I think Maleficent is Principal Rave," the green eyed redhead said with a serious tone. "She is always picking on us."

"Maybe you shouldn't have set a trash can on fire." Professor Eraqus simply suggested.

"That was one time!" Axel argued raising his hands up and bringing them back down to slap his sides. "Why does everyone have to always bring that up?! Fine! I learned my lesson! Never go to school when sick!" He crossed his arms with a pout clearly not liking the fact that everyone seemed to bring that up whenever he talked about Principal Raven not liking him. So what if he accidently set a trash can on fire? It's not like the school burned down or anything. He let out a huff of frustration directing the air up to blow some hair out of his face.

Roxas, who was currently sitting on the couch between Sora and Ventus, let out a sigh as he held his head trying to rub his headache away. He wasn't paying attention to any of the discussion, or arguments, that was going on as the mutants tried to figure out who Maleficent was. Ever since Professor Eraqus told him that he controlled the Underworld and the dead (he didn't exactly say that, but the was what Roxas got out of it) his head started to hurt. Every so often he could swear he was hearing voices in his head, not like he'd tell anyone because they would ship him off to the closest looney bin in a heartbeat. Sora looked over at Roxas with a concerned expression on his face as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," the brunette whispered, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," the shadow wielding mutant smiled trying to reassure his brother. It didn't work because Sora could tell that there was something seriously bothering Roxas, it was a triplet thing. Nevertheless, the brunette didn't push his brother any further figuring it would be better to discuss it at a different time when there wasn't arguing going on and the entire institute wasn't there.

"Enough," Professor Eraqus finally said silencing the room. "We aren't going to single out anyone just yet, but just keep an eye out. Also, training sessions will now be held inside until further notice." With that said he left the room followed by Luxord, Xaldin and Lexaeus leaving the students to continue bickering amongst themselves.

"Someone here is right," Namine finally chimed in as she sat in one of the large chairs in the corner of the room drawing something. Everyone's attention turned to her, all knowing that she could see the future and was always right.

"Who is right then?" Reno asked suddenly next to the blonde artist. "We have to know who to be careful around."

"Just watch the brotherhood closely," the blonde girl replied looking over at the triplets with a mischievous smile, "Or befriend them." She looked back down at her sketch book once again oblivious to anything that was going on around her. Roxas let out a sigh as he got up leaving the room wanting nothing more than to go to bed hoping it would get rid of the headache that seemed to be getting worse by the minute. Ventus and Sora both looked at each other before following after their brother, both worried that he was having problems with his powers again. The three brothers walked in silence, no one knowing what to say for once.

"I'm going to bed," Roxas told his brothers, "I'll see you in the morning okay?" Before they could even answer he disappeared into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Once inside he trudged over to his bed, plopped down on it and was out like a burnt out light, not even bothering to change into his pajamas.

Sora and Ventus once again looked at each other both worried about their brother, but guessing it would be best to let him rest and see if that helped. The two went back downstairs to talk as Axel, Demyx, Aqua and Reno argued on Maleficent's disguise in their school, while Zexion, Namine, Rude and Kairi were silently sitting in the corner, each doing their own thing. Lexaeus entered the room and ordered everyone to get some dinner before going to their rooms and going to bed. There would have been argument if it was any other professor, but since it was Lexaeus and everyone was scared shitless of him they did as they were told. Dinner was eaten in silence and it seemed now that everything that happened earlier that day was finally setting in. When everyone went to bed it felt like the entire institute was holding its breath, waiting for what surprises tomorrow held in store for them.

**~0~**

_There stood a teenage boy in the middle of a battle field wearing ancient Greek armor stained in blood. At his feet were thousands of dead bodies of those he killed in battle, his sword stained red from the blood and still dripping from his last victim. Large black birds circled overhead waiting for the teenager to leave so they could feast on the flesh of the dead and not worry about his sword striking them for their impatience. The ground started to shake as the setting sun was blotted out by the shadows of another part of the army approaching only to come to a stop on the horizon when their eyes gaze upon their fallen comrades with the single warrior stained in their blood. The commander rides back and forth among their ranks spilling lies of victory if they worked together and the great honor of dying for one's country and family. _

_The lone warrior laughed at such nonsense, for he knew there was no honor in dying. He knew this because he controlled the place these people called the Underworld. A place where they thought judgement was passed over what they did in their lives, but they were wrong. Once a soul leaves a person they are forever stuck in a place called the shadow realm, a place that is the black and white version of the world they came from. Every so often finding their way out only to be stuck in a ghostly form in the Earth realm. There were a few that escaped this purgatory forever and entered the realm of light to be reborn into the future, but those were only the ones with powers, mutants._

_The commander let out a loud shout as he raced across the flat plane followed by the rest of the idiots all awaiting their death. The mutant took a deep breath and released it slowly making it sound like breath of life, for that was what it was in a way. The earth started to shake violently not from the hooves of running horses or the pounding feet of running men, but from an entrance from the shadow realm opening. A tear in the earth appeared as if a piece of paper had been ripped with the sounds of thousands of agonizing screams coming forth. Ghastly figures tore their way through, cursing the mutant that summoned them back to their rotting corpses. They cursed and screamed, but their bodies prepared to fight their comrades against their will for they had no choice but to listen, and they hated it. _

_The teenage mutant lifted his left hand into the air, his snap slicing through the screams and for a moment, everything was silent. The oncoming warriors were silenced as they watched their fallen comrades come back from the dead walking, limping, crawling and dragging themselves once again into the battle. The silence was shattered by the boy laughing in amusement at the fearful faces of the humans. His laugh was quickly silenced when two mutants appeared among the humans riding forward, unafraid of the undead approaching. The one riding a chestnut brown horse summoned the powers of the wind, earth, fire and water to dispose of any undead threatening to approach the humans, but mainly water so as to not destroy the poor souls stuck in the bodies. The second mutant was riding a pure white horse shooting beams of light that looked very much like lightning bolts to release the souls from their dead bodies and sending them to the realm of light with promise of being reborn into a brighter future._

_The humans cheered as the two mutants easily took down the army of undead as they approached the third mutant driven mad by the hatred for humans. For what the humans did to mutants that only wished to live a normal life, not wanting to be seen as a god or goddess or some kind of monster. The element wielding mutant and light wielding mutant both got off their horses to face the shadow wielding mutant face to face._

_"Stop this insanity brother," the light wielding mutant pleaded only to get a growl from the shadow mutant. "I have seen the future and eventually everyone will become a mutant, but it is going to take time."_

_"I have looked at all the mutants of the present," added the element mutant, "And there are as many mutants in the world as there are humans. If that is to be said now, just think of what it will be like in the future that Zeus talks about."_

_"You can't talk of the future Poseidon!" hissed the shadow mutant, "Your realm is of the present not the future."_

_"He is only trying to show, Hades, if there are equal numbers among humans and mutants now," Zeus interjected, "That it proves the future I see will happen sooner that any of us can think of."_

_"You know nothing!" Hades hissed swirling his hand around to make a dark circle of shadows appear and in the middle images of the past flickered by, "We have this conversation every time we are reborn. Each time we are reborn we create a new belief, represented as gods or creatures of the three realms by theses worthless humans. Brothers, you know nothing for you have not seen the past like I have." He passed his hand through the shadow circle causing it to disappear in thin air._

_"This is true," Zeus nodded, "but you haven't seen the future. I know this will happen again, but eventually, when it is time we will stand together and show the humans that mutants aren't bad. Now isn't the time for they are too ignorant to fully understand our powers. Like you said, they see us as gods or monsters now. In the future they'll see us as monsters too, but they will have a better understanding of how these powers form."_

_"Please Hades," Poseidon pleaded, "Just give it time."_

_"No!" Hades screamed tears now running down his face, "They didn't give Persephone time! They killed him! For what?! Just because he was a mutant!? A mutant that they thought was a monster not a god?!" **(1)** _

_"We have all lost people we cared about Hades," Zeus said casting his eyes down at the ground. "But their souls are waiting for us in the realm of light to be reborn with us."_

_"If he is waiting then I will join him!" Hades screamed calling upon all his mutant powers to kill all three of them like he did before. He knew that the three of them all had to die together or else they wouldn't be reborn."_

_"Hades stop!" Poseidon screamed as roots and vines emerged from the ground attempting to absorb the untamed powers of his brother, but they were too much. Zeus let out a sigh, for he had foreseen this, and he summoned the powers of the realm of light to capture their souls to be reborn in the future once more._

**~0~**

Roxas awoke in the middle of the night in a scream, his eyes wide with fear of what he just witnessed knowing it wasn't just a dream, but a memory from the past. Tears filled his eyes as he remembered the pain of seeing his love Persephone die before his very eyes and not being able to do anything about it. It angered him when he realized that humans wrote everything down wrong, for Persephone wasn't a girl, and he didn't kidnap Persephone at all. Sure Demeter had been upset about them loving each other because they were both male, but for her to spread those lies to the humans made him want to go to the past and cut her lying tongue out.

The blonde shook his head trying to banish those thoughts that had lead him down the path of insanity multiple times. At least this time he didn't have a Persephone to worry about for there was no one he loved like that...at least yet. God he hoped he didn't because that would only mean that the past would repeat itself and he didn't want to live through it again. The memories of losing his love over and over again brought fresh tears to his cheeks. He stubbornly wiped the tears away and got out of bed to go to his closet. Pulling out a sweatshirt, jacket, shocks and shoes, he quickly put them on and quietly snuck out of the institute to go sit outside, hoping the cold winter air would help clear his mind. He sat down on one of the ice covered benches instantly regretting it because he hated the cold and now his butt was cold. Silently cursing, he got up hoping his butt wouldn't be as cold, but it only made matters worse.

"You okay?" asked a voice the blonde knew had to be Axel's since he felt a sudden warmth warm the area. Roxas avoided eye contact now fearing getting too close to anyone in fear of the past once again repeating itself. He didn't want to be that cause of all the problems and end up destroying the three of them again. A warm hand landed on his shoulder causing him to look up at Axel's gentle green eyes. He couldn't fight it, tears filled his eyes as the past continued to linger in the back of his mind begging to be remembered. Before he could even think of what his body was doing, he hugged the redhead and cried into his chest.

"It's okay Roxie," Axel smiled softly as he wrapped his arms around the blonde trying to comfort him.

"It's not," Roxas cried, "It's all my fault. Every time..." He broke into more tears that instantly dried the moment they left his eyes the heat the radiated from the fire mutant's body.

"Things happen," the redhead smiled kissing the younger teen's spiky blonde hair. At that moment an memory forced it's way through the shadow mutant's walls as he heard his love's voice say time and time again, _'For every bad day, a good day is waiting for you in the future.'_ Then he heard Axel whisper in his ear, "For every bad day, a good day is waiting for you in the future."

"No!" Roxas screamed pushing himself away from Axel holding his head and shaking it. "No, I can't love you. Not again...Time will only repeat itself." Now his felt his tears start to stick to his face from the winter cold as he moved farther and farther away from Axel. This was what he was trying to avoid, if he avoided falling in love then he wouldn't have to be the cause of the past being repeated. His blue eyes looked up at pained expression painted on the redhead's face making him feel like his heart was shattering to pieces.

"Roxas?" Axel whispered taking a cautious step forward as if he was approaching a wounded animal. "What's wrong? You can tell me."

"Get away!" Roxas screamed causing all the shadows to transform into strange creatures. "If you love me you'll only be killed! I can't, I can't." He shook his head, tears falling from his face shimmering like crystals, "I can't protect you... I'm sorry." He stepped back into the shadows entering the shadow realm so there was no way Axel could follow him.

However, Axel wouldn't have it, quickly running up to the shadow mutant he grabbed his elbow causing both of them to enter the shadow realm. Roxas tried to push Axel back to the earth realm at the institute, but the redhead's grip was strong. He was so focused on trying to get the redhead off him that he didn't notice where he was going until they suddenly fell out of the shadow realm and into the earth realm. The two mutants tumbled down a hill coming to a stop when they hit something made of stone.

"Shit Roxas," the redhead groaned as he sat up wincing when he put pressure on his right arm. "Why are you suddenly so scared of me? Did I do something wrong back there?"

"No, you did nothing wrong." Roxas sighed as he hugged his legs to his chest and buried his face into his knees. "And it's not you that I'm scared of, I'm scared of the past repeating itself..."

"That past is in the past," Axel smiled scooting over to sit by the blonde, "We can't change it so we might as well just learn from our mistakes."

"Which is why I can't be near you," the blonde replied as he scooted away from the redhead. "If I fall in love with you then you'll be in danger... You'll be..." He winced as a headache unleashed its furry causing him to black out for a split second.

_'Release us...'_ voices hissed to the shadow mutant only making his headache worse. _'Release us Lord of Past.'_

"Roxas, are you okay?" the fire mutant asked with a worried expression as he gently touched the blonde's forehead, "You're burning up. Come on, let's get back to the institute." He picked up Roxas even though he complained about how he didn't want the past to repeat itself. The pain in his arm intensified, but he didn't care.

_'RELEASE US!!!'_ screamed the voices in Roxas' head causing him to scream out in pain. _'Release us and we will destroy anyone that dare harm you oh great lord. Release us so we can once again roam the realm of the living and devour more souls. Too many people, too many weak humans roaming the world today. Their souls need to be devoured. Yes, tasty souls.'_

"No! Stop!" Roxas screamed trying to banish the voices from his mind. Axel place a hand on the blonde's forehead drawing out as much of the fever as he could, but he knew he was going to need Demyx's help. His green eyes scanned the area for the first time realizing that they were in the local cemetery. A frown found its way to his face as he silently debated on how to return to the institute as quickly as possible. He was getting ready to fly there, hoping that he could last that long, when a sudden chill ran down his spine warning him that something bad was about to happen.

* * *

**A/N: 1-** Yes I know Persephone is a girl in the stories, but like that ever stopped me. XD haha.

So the voices/ different dimensions/worlds is kind of going off of the nightcrawler thing in X-men evolution. One where he gets stuck with that one mutant that had the mechanical arm. And the second where the mechanical arm mutant is back and lets Nightcrawler see the world he passes through and ends up letting those crazy monsters out. Yeah, kind of where I got some inspiration for this chapter along with another story I want to write where Roxas is a necromancer, that I added in here anyways. XD but I'll eventually write that story, probably when I'm done with this one.

Bwhahaha, cliff-hanger, gotta love it. The next chapter will be 'the Awakening Part II'

Please review and let me know what you think. X3

Until my next installment.

~Byes


	12. The Awakening: Part II

**~12~**

**The Awakening: Part II**

Ventus stirred in his sleep as he tried to understand the current dream he was having about Axel and Roxas talking outside in the snow. He watched as his brother seemed to remember something from a past life and realize that Axel was his lover reborn. His brother seemed to freak out as he remembered the dream about Hades, Zeus and Poseidon not wanting 'Persephone' to die yet again. Roxas opened the door to the shadow world to try to run away from Axel, but Axel simply followed after him.

Ventus felt part of himself leave his body, as his astral projected self traveled away from the institute, into town, through a small forest and into the local cemetery. There he found Axel and Roxas talking until Roxas collapsed from the raging headache caused by the voices echoing in his head.

_'Release us'_ the voices hissed in the shadow mutant's mind, '_Release us, Lord of Past.'_

"Roxas, are you okay?" Ventus heard the fire mutant asked.

_'He looks like he is in pain.'_ said the inner voice of Axel's thoughts, '_Maybe I should check to see if he has a fever, at least I'll be able to help a little bit.'_ He gently placed a hand on Roxas' forehead with a frown, "You're burning up. Come on, let's get you back to the institute." Ventus watched as the redhead picked his brother up, feeling the pain from the redhead's injured arm as he did so.

_'No!'_ Roxas' thoughts protested with the voices and Axel's actions. '_Stop! Stop!'_

___'RELEASE US!'_ screamed the voices in Roxas' head as he let out his own scream, but of pain,_ 'Release us and we will destroy anyone that dare harm you oh great lord. Release us so we can once again roam the realm of the living and devour more souls. Too many people, too many weak humans roaming the world today. Their souls need to be devoured. Yes, tasty souls.'_

"No! Stop!" Roxas screamed as he fought with the voices in his mind. Ventus watched Axel try to draw out the heat from the fever, but it wasn't enough and he knew it. His attention was suddenly redirected as another mutant's thoughts became present to him, thoughts that he didn't like and knew were going to put Axel and Roxas in danger.

_'How convenient that the shadow mutant should be here as I was on my way to scold Maleficent for her failure to capture him.'_ thought the metal wielding mutant that Ventus learned went by the name of Xehanort. _'Now my plans to use his powers to destroy non-mutants will be set into motion. This time, I will be sure that his brothers don't interfere.' _The element wielding mutant forced his astral projected self to glide through the forest finding Xehanort not too far away from where Axel and Roxas were. The man had dark tanned skin that contrasted with his long white hair that seemed to be spiked at the top, while the rest went just past his shoulders. The things that scared Ventus the most was the man's cold golden eyes.

_'I should greet them properly,'_ Xehanort thought with an evil smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he called upon his powers over metal that seemed to be even in the cemetery.

_'Something's wrong'_ He heard Axel think suddenly summoning fire around him as protection. It was just in time as metal objects crashed into the flames, melting on impact from the heat.

_'A simple bump in the road,'_ said Xehanort's thoughts as he walked to the edge of the forest taking a good look at the flames surrounding Axel and Roxas. _'I'll simply have to kill the fire mutant, though, elemental mutants are such a pain to kill. Elements always protecting them, but he can only keep that up for so long.'_

Ventus' eyes widened as he watched as anything metal in the cemetery rained down on the fire barrier, feeling the pain of cuts as some managed to slip through the barrier and Axel's natural defense. He closed his eyes concentrating all his power on trying to summon the wind or earth to help protect his brother and the redhead, but it proved useless. He then focused on getting his astral projected self back to his body so he could awaken Sora and they could help before it was too late.

Ventus sat straight up as his astral projected self returned to his body, eyes wide in fear for his brother. He knew that none of that was a dream, it was what was happening now, the present. How he knew this? He didn't know, but he did know that he had to wake Sora so they could help their brother escape Xehanort. From what he saw in the man's mind, he planned to use Roxas' shadow powers to destroy any non-mutant. Not even bothering to change out of his pajamas, he darted to Sora's room and burst through the door in a loud ruckus that made Sora groan in annoyance.

"Sora!" Ventus screamed trying to shake his brother awake. "Get your lazy ass up! Roxas is in trouble!" When that failed he summoned the powers of wind to toss the light wielding mutant off the bed.

"Ow!" Sora protested as he rubbed his head, "Ven! What was that for?!" He glanced over at the clock the glared 2:10 in bright red numbers. "It's two o'clock in the morning! What gives?"

"Weren't you listening?!" the blonde growled in annoyance, "Roxas is in trouble! Come on!" He didn't give his brother a chance to even reply as he grabbed hold of the brunette's hand and dragged him towards the window. Without even thinking he managed to summon winds strong enough to lift both young mutants into the sky taking them to the cemetery. Sora clung to his brother as he watched the world beneath them seem to fly by threatening to flatten them if they fell.

"Ven! Hurry up!" Sora complained, "I just realized I don't like flying and if Roxas is in trouble we need to hurry before I get sick and can't help!" He felt his stomach do flips threatening to release dinner all over both of them.

"I know!" Ventus yelled trying to keep his focus on keeping them in the air. He didn't even know how he was doing it, it just seemed to happen on impulse. His blue eyes closed as images of Axel growing weak appeared and Xehanort approached forcing the metal to become a large sword. Axel summoned his chakrams made of fire just in time to block, but it was hard for him to dodge as he tried to protect Roxas, who was now currently unconscious in the redhead's left arm. Axel continued to block attack after attack no longer able to summon his barrier of fire from exhaustion of making the fire hot enough to melt the metal. He winced as Xehanort's sword came in contact with his chakram, pain shooting through his body from his injured right arm.

The element mutant silently cursed to himself knowing that Axel wasn't going to hold on for much longer and Xehanort wasn't going to let the redhead live. It seemed the wind picked up his need for urgency as it grew stronger, lifting them higher and faster across the town to the cemetery. When the two brothers finally landed as Xehanort's sword got past Axel's defenses and into the redhead's abdomen.

"Axel!" Ventus and Sora yelled in unison as they ran over to help only to be stopped by a rain of metal objects.

"I'll cover you," Sora yelled to Ventus, "You get Axel and Roxas." The element mutant nodded as he followed the brunette through the never ending rain of deadly metal. The light mutant summoned a giant key that he used as a sword, deflecting anything that came near them. Xehanort smirked as he went to grab Roxas from the distracted redhead.

_'Oh no you don't' _Axel growled in his mind using what was left of his strength to summon fire once more into an explosion that sent Xehanort flying a few feet away. It distracted the metal wielding mutant long enough so Ventus and Sora could get to Axel and Roxas. The redhead fell do his knees holding onto the sword that still went through him.

"We need to get you back to the institute." the element mutant said placing his hands on either side of the sword trying to use the element of water to heal, but couldn't. He hadn't even managed to be able to use water or fire yet and that was even if he could. His blue eyes widened as he heard Xehanort's angry thoughts in his head. His attention shifted when he heard the sound of a car crashing through the cemetery coming to a stop between the four teenage mutants and Xehanort.

"Get in!" Reno yelled opening the passenger door to a Toyota Yaris already out of the driver's side. He quickly picked up Roxas and put him in the car first. Then with the help from Sora and Ventus, the three managed to get Axel in the car without causing further damage to his wound. With Roxas in the front and Sora and Ventus taking care of Axel in the back, Reno hit the gas and sent his super speed powers into the car.

'_No metal?'_ Ventus heard Xehanort think, trying to use his powers over metal to bring the car back. _'Eraqus'_

Before they knew it they were back at the institute with the four professors and Namine out front waiting for them. Namine's eyes were filled with tears from the future she saw hoping that she had prevented it, but when she glanced into the future again, it wasn't good. It was better than the previous future, but still not good. The moment the car came to a stop, making it visible to the human eye, the blonde girl ran over and opened the back door.

"Come on, get him inside. Hurry." Namine insisted as Lexaeus moved her aside to get Axel out of the car. The green eyed redhead's breaths were short and shallow, his face pale and contorted in pain. She went to follow Lexeaus inside, but then turned around to face Sora and Ventus, "You should get Roxas to bed." The two nodded as they got their brother out of the car, up the stairs and into his bed hoping that Axel would be alright. Ventus bit his lip thinking about what he had been dreaming about when Roxas and Axel were talking in the snow. He didn't know if that part was a dream or if it was real. However, he did know that if it was real and if Axel died it wouldn't be good.

"We should stay with him," Ventus suggested as he climbed into the bed next to Roxas as Sora did the same on the other side and fell asleep.

**~0~**

_Crystal blue eyes widened as the scene before the blonde teen seemed to go in slow motion, even his body seemed to move at this molasses slow pace. He hopelessly watched as a sword, meant for him, was driven through the redhead's chest, blood splattering everywhere. The man wielding the sword frowned at having harmed the wrong person, but simply drew his sword out as if the redhead didn't mean anything. The blonde turned around to catch his fallen lover, a waterfall of tears falling to the blood stained earth. His lover's lifeless body in his arms as a blind rage of darkness consumed him. The human's cold yellow eyes narrowed as he lifted his sword to kill the person that was the cause for all the problems in the village._

_""Release us"" beckoned the creatures of the shadow realm in the blonde's head. ""Release us and make him pay for what he has done my lord. Make him wish that he never wished to destroy you. Take revenge for Gabriel."" The blonde's eyes turned cold as he opened the door to the shadow world wide enough for the shadow creatures to come through. The tear in the sky behind the blonde let dark energy seep out in a blood curdling scream, and to the humans eyes, looked as if he had grown pure black wings of an angel that had fallen. _

_Slowly the shadow creatures emerged, each looked as if the animals of the world were tossed together and thrown out randomly. Creatures with the front of a elephant, a back of a rooster, the tail of dolphin, a neck of a giraffe, the eyes of a cat, the ears of a basset hound, horns of a gazelle, teeth of a wolf and the beak of a parrot, and so on and so forth. Each creature had the same glowing blood red eyes, hungry for the worthless human souls that were theirs to devour. The people fled as the creatures' dark bodies consumed the sun and sky, hanging over the the humans like vultures waiting for the signal from the one they called 'lord'. Their darkness covered the world like a cloth causing fear and chaos to reign. _

_"Kill them," the blonde ordered, his eyes void of all emotion as if possessed. "Don't leave a single soul intact. For this is the wrath of Lucifer." The shadow creatures let out screams of pure happiness as all their binds were released so they could reek havoc however they pleased. Their claws, fangs, talons and beaks ripped apart all the humans attempting to flee, their souls, devoured, never to be seen again. _

_A small light broke through the darkness causing the shadow creatures flee and hiss in anger as two figures emerged from the light. One had short brown spiky hair and blue eyes, the other had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as the one named Lucifer. Lucifer hissed like a snake not welcoming his brothers who were there to foil his revenge against the humans. _

_"Michael, Raphael," Lucifer growled, "Leave before I order my creatures to destroy you as well. These humans deserved their cruel fate for killing Gabriel."_

_"Your creatures of darkness can't harm us Lucifer," the brunette replied slowly causing the darkness to dissipate with each step he took. "Stop this madness at once. You aren't thinking clearly because you mind has been plagued with sadness. Do you really think Gabriel would have wanted this?"_

_"Michael," Lucifer hissed, "You are so willing to forgive these humans even after they killed Uriel. Why?"_

_"You forget I can see the future," Michael answered, "I know that eventually I will be with him, but now is not the time. Even when each of our soul mates die, we are forever connected to them."_

_"Michael, Lucifer" the blonde named Raphael said with a heavy sigh, "Those creatures have to be sent back, they are destroying the world as we speak. I will not let my domain be destroyed while you two bicker about the past and future. We are in the realm of the present and this requires immediate attention. The past is done, the future is uncertain, but the present is now."_

_"Shut up Raphael!" Lucifer screamed, "Your words aren't welcomed here."_

_"If you will not stop," Raphael growled, "Then we will have to stop you. Michael saw this happening and told a man named Noah to create an arch filled with a pair of all the creatures of the world. In order to rid the world of your creatures I will create a flood that lasts three days and three nights. Noah and the others I have selected will survive as foreseen by Michael and everything will start over." Before Lucifer could protest, Raphael called upon his powers causing dark storm clouds to fill the sky and rain down on the earth making the waters rise, engulfing the land creating the Great Flood._

**~0~**

Roxas opened his eyes slowly to find himself staring at a white ceiling filled with the moonlight as tears once more filled his eyes from another painful memory of the past. He slowly sat up noticing his brothers sleeping next to him vaguely wondering how they got there or even how he ended up getting back to his room. He figured that he must have blacked out from the voices screaming in his head and Axel brought him back and telling Sora and Ventus he wasn't feeling good. Now he would have to figure out how to keep the redhead safe because he didn't know if he could handle seeing his love die again, but something was telling him that something happened. Something bad happened after he passed out and he didn't know if he could face it.

"You're up?" Ventus yawned rubbing the dreariness from his eyes. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah," Roxas smiled softly trying to understand the horrible feeling. "What happened last night?" The way his brother avoided eye contact meant it wasn't good and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know anymore.

"Axel was seriously hurt," the element mutant answered, "I don't know how he is doing because Namine told us to stay with you." The shadow mutant felt anger bubble inside him wanting to destroy anyone that would dare harm Axel.

"Who hurt him?" Roxas demanded with a growl.

"His name is Xehanort," Ventus replied with a sigh, "he is able to...." He watched as his brother got off the bed and stormed out of the room before he could finish his sentence. A frown painted itself on his face as he followed his brother to the front of the institute placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to give this Xehanort person a piece of my mind," the shadow mutant hissed pulling his shoulder away from his brother. "I'm not going to lose Axel again. I can't..." He looked away as more tears formed for what seemed like the millionth time in less than a day, but he couldn't help it, the memories were painful.

"What are you talking about?" Ventus demanded placing his hands on his hips.

"What professor Eraqus told us," Roxas said with a heavy sigh, "It's all true...My realm holds the past so I remember everything..." He took a deep breath trying calm his nerves knowing from the past that acting out in rage wasn't going to help him, it never did.

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" Ventus suggested with a small smile.

"No," Roxas sighed, "You can go back to bed. I'm going to see Axel." He walked past his brother, pulled by an invisible force that connected him to the redhead. Luxord looked up from his papers with a curious look as Roxas walked into the room that should have been off limits to students, but he didn't say anything. The young blonde's eyes found Axel asleep on the bed of the small hospital like room looking very pale from the injury to his abdomen.

"He's going to be fine," Luxord stated as he put down the paper he was reading. Roxas just replied with a nod not wanting to talk as he made his way over to the bed and took the redhead's hand in his. The blonde professor smiled, "I'll go get you a chair so you can stay here." He knew it was against the rules, but he wasn't one for rules unless it was to prevent the students from getting hurt. It was obvious that the blonde teen wanted to stay and he wasn't going to deny him that. He exited the room to get the chair from the closet and when he returned he found Roxas crying.

"Hey," Luxord said softly as he set down the chair and placed a hand on the blonde teen's shoulder, "I said he was going to be fine. There is no need to cry." Again, Roxas just gave the professor a nod not wanting to talk to anyone and just wanting Axel to wake up. Luxord left with a heavy sigh to go to bed leaving Roxas alone with Axel.

"I'm sorry," Roxas whispered as he sat down in the chair with his hands still wrapped around the redhead's left hand. He noticed the bandages around Axel's abdomen and his left arm in a sling that he knew happened from their awkward landing. The one he loved almost died again because of his stupidity just like all those times in the past.

"Roxas," Axel whispered in his sleep subconsciously tightening his grip on the blonde's hands.

"I'm here," the blonde smiled resting his head next to Axel's. "I'm here." He said once more before drifting off to sleep feeling better now that he found his love in this lifetime and knowing that the redhead was going to be okay.

* * *

**A/N: **So yeah, I got caught up in the moment and wrote the next chapter...though...I must admit, it is kind of short...sry

Okay, so don't get crazy that I messed with Christianity people. I'm Christian so it's all good. XD hehe I love playing with those kinds of things. ^.~

So now Ventus' powers over the present are awakened, and Roxas' powers over the past are as well. That just leaves Sora. XD haha, It goes in order. So I think I might make the next chapter called the Awakening: Part III or not. I might add a chapter or two before his powers over the future awakens considering Namine can already see the future. We'll see. XD

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you think!

Until my next installment. ~Byes


	13. The Awakening: Part III

**~13~**

**The Awakening: Part III**

Ventus sighed as he watched Sora sleep, not being able to sleep himself. All the thoughts and dreams of the people in the institute were swarming through his head, but the one that he seemed to be focusing on was the thoughts of his other brother, Roxas. From what he could understand, Roxas was seeing things from the past, most were the terrible events that led up to their deaths of their previous lives. With a heavy sigh the blonde got out of the bed, slipped on his shoes and shrugged into a light sweater before going outside hoping the cold night air would help clear his head of everyone's thoughts.

A soft warm breeze greeted him as he opened the door and he immediately felt better being around the elements that he had become so accustom to. It comforted him making it easier to deal with the many voices he was hearing in his head, but he realized the farther he got from the institute the quieter they were. He knew it was because that the institute was a good distance away from the city so if he was in the forest then there wouldn't be people's thoughts to hear.

Finally able to hear his own thoughts he figured that he would have to talk to Professor Eraqus about his new powers since he was probably the only person that could help him. He pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open to see that it was ten minutes until four, not a good time to talk to the professor since he was more than likely to be asleep. So for now, he figured he would let the element comfort him, taking him away from civilized life and away from people. Even though he was getting deeper and deeper into the forest, he knew exactly where he was and how to return the institute as if he had a built in GPS.

The earth started to shake slightly and the sound of rocks being thrown seemed to echo throughout the forest, the wind moving through the leaves briskly. His blue eyes closed as he listened to the voices of the wind telling him that it wasn't happening naturally and that there was someone in the forest.

_'220, 221, 222,'_ thought a voice as the blonde followed the wind's guidance. Staying hidden in the shadows of the trees Ventus watched the boy he knew as Terra practicing shooting rocks at what looked like a target he made out of a few other rocks. _'Someone is here, I can feel the vibrations in the earth.'_

Ventus held his breath as the brunette turned around scanning the trees for any sign of movement stopping at where the blonde was currently hiding. Terra frowned not being to sense anymore movement, but knowing that someone was probably watching him because the vibrations he felt were too large for it to be just an animal.

"I know you're there," the earth mutant growled pulling a rock out of the earth and aiming towards the hidden blonde. "You better show yourself or else you're going to get crushed." The blonde let out a heavy sigh knowing that since Terra had been practicing on his aim that he was telling the truth. That's when he realized that he could use his new powers to get information on Maleficent and who that Xehanort guy really was.

"Fine," Ventus said coming out of the shadows with his hands raised up showing he was surrendering, but with mutants that meant very little.

_'The element boy?'_ Ventus heard Terra think slightly letting his guard down as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. _'Wonder why he's out here all alone. No matter, he'll make training a little more interesting.'_

"You know, training is a lot better when you actually have moving targets. Let's see what you got." Without warning the once stagnant rock was now flying through the air towards the younger teen. The blonde focused on the wind allowing it to surround him, lifting him up into the sky out of harms way before setting him down. However, the moment he landed more large rocks were thrown at him and using the wind to either help him avoid the attack or throw them back towards his attacker.

"Stop relying on wind," Terra frowned as he ceased all attacks for the time being, "I know you have control over earth. You've shown me that before so why not fight earth with earth?"

_'Besides, no matter how the wind howls, the mountain will not bow to it.'_ the brunette thought to himself, _'Why the hell am I even thinking about Mulan at a time like this?' _Ventus brought a hand to cover his mouth, not being able to help but laugh the brunettes' thoughts because he would have never pegged the earth mutant to be able to quote a disney movie, yet alone Mulan. This caused Terra to raise a questioning eyebrow wondering why the element mutant would be laughing, the only thing that could have been funny was his thought about Mulan, but he knew he didn't say that out loud.

"Sorry," the blonde apologized with a small smile, "It's just that I don't know much about earth. Wind came to me naturally and earth seems so difficult to control." He wasn't going to tell Terra the real reason why he was laughing because he was still an enemy and if they knew he could read minds it might cause some problems later.

"That's because you're not unmovable like a rock." Terra said with a shrug causing the younger teen to give him a confused look. "When controlling an element like earth you have to think like it. When you control wind what do you think of? How does it make you feel?"

"I think of free movement and it makes me feel that way too." Ventus admitted with a small smile.

"Wind and earth are opposites, so it makes sense that earth would be unmovable yes?" the older teen asked walking over to the younger teen and placing a small rock in his hand. "It is easy to go through wind, but for earth it is much more difficult. Even in a rock this small you can not move through it because it is unmovable."

"Why are you telling me this?" Ventus asked looking up into the blue eyes of his enemy, "Why are you trying to help me?"

_'I don't even know,'_ Terra thought to himself as he met the blonde's eyes. There was this unsettling feeling in his stomach that he could quite explain as he looked into those crystal clear eyes. _'God, I have to think of some reason.'_

"Because," the brunette said scratching the back of his head as he looked away, "they say the best way to practice is to teach someone else."

"You know for a bad guy," the blonde laughed, "you aren't so bad."

"Yeah well," the older teen sighed, "Just because I'm helping you now doesn't mean I'll help you later when we do fight again." He looked at his watch with a frown knowing that he better be heading back if he didn't want the rest of the brotherhood to get susupicious. Yes they knew that he went out training every morning but he was always back by four and it was now four ten.

"You have to go?" Ventus asked as he listened to the other mutant's thoughts. He was upset that he couldn't spend more time with the brunette because he wanted to learn more about controlling the earth and there was something about him that he couldn't quite explain. Like they had met before in a previous life or something, but that was just silly because in few memories he saw from Roxas, there was never anything about his past life having a lover. It seemed that he was the only one out of the three that didn't have one and stubbornly shook that thought from his head. Why was he even thinking about such things?

"Yeah," Terra answered with a sigh, "See you at school." With that said the earth mutant turned around leaving the element mutant there trying to suppress the strange feeling that was building up inside him. He was so distracted with his own thoughts that he didn't even realize that the brunette was trying to throw away a similar feeling.

Ventus watched as Terra disappeared into the shadows of the forest before turning around and heading back to the institute. As he walked through the forest he tried to feel the vibrations of the earth like the brunette did to know where he was hiding. It was hard for him to focus when he kept tripping over things causing him to lose his concentration, but by the time he reached the institute he was able to tell where he was going even with his eyes closed which reminded him of bats. When he finally made it back to the institute Professor Eraqus was outside waiting for him, everyone was right, he always seemed to know everything.

"I was going to help you with your new gifts," Professor Eraqus started, "but it seems you have already learned to control them."

"I don't understand professor." Ventus asked.

"Your ability to read other people's minds," the older man said, "You were having troubles because you could hear everything, now you are able to block them out." Now that Ventus thought about it he couldn't hear anyone's thoughts, but if he tried to focus on someone he could hear their thoughts. It didn't make sense that earlier he couldn't control it and now he could which made him wonder, what changed? He didn't do any training except for dodge rocks and learn that earth was unmovable.

"The nature of controlling elements are similar to mind reading," the professor said as if he knew what Ventus was thinking. (which he probably did). "To control wind you must think freely, same goes for when you wish to read everyone's thoughts. Since you mastered wind it was understandable that you could read everyone's thoughts without trouble. However, to prevent everyone's thoughts to bombard you, you must create a wall that is unmovable, much like earth. So it seems that you've been doing some earth training."

"Not really..." the blonde admitted. "I..."

"No need to explain," Professor Eraqus smile, "As long as you're not having problems that is all that matter. Just remember Ven, if you need any help, be sure to ask."

"Yes professor," Ventus nodded.

"Now get some sleep." the professor suggested. The element mutant agreed that he needed some sleep so he made his way to his own room instead of Roxas' where Sora was currently sleeping. He set his alarm to go off at 6:30 which was in two hours, but he needed as much sleep as he could get even if it wasn't that long. Then again, he could always sleep on the way to school and even in first period as long as all his work was done, an easy task like always. Not even bothering to change he just plopped onto his bed and fell asleep, thankful that no one else's thoughts or dreams were bothering him. He made a mental note that he would have to thank Terra eventually.

**~0~**

Sora let out a soft yawn realizing that neither of his brothers were in the room which was odd because he remembered falling asleep with his brothers. His blue eyes looked around the room landing on the clock that read in glaring red numbers 6:50 am, way too early for him in his opinion. He was about to go back to sleep when Ventus walked into the room looking ready to go to school in a few minutes.

"I thought I'd let you sleep in a bit." the blonde said setting his backpack down before walking over to the bed with brunette attempting to hide under the covers, "but I think I'll be regretting that now. Get up Sora, we need to go talk to Roxas." The covers were thrown in the air as Sora hopped out of the bed almost forgetting about what had happened the night before.

"Roxas is okay right?" Sora asked grabbing onto Ventus' shoulders with worry filled wide eyes. The blonde gave his brother a simple nod as the brunette slapped his hand to his forehead, "God, how could I forget? I swear I can never think straight in the morning." He grabbed Ventus and ran out the door down the stair, only to come to a stop at the bottom. Ventus could only shake his head knowing that Sora had no idea where Roxas was so he lead the way to the room were Axel and Roxas were.

When they arrived, Axel was still unconscious and Roxas was just sitting next to him with his hands wrapped around the redhead's. There were dark rings around the shadow mutant's eyes, signs that he hadn't gotten a good nights rest. Neither of his brothers could blame him, it had been an eventful night.

"Hey Rox," the brunette smiled as he walked over to stand by Roxas. "You look like shit. I'm sure Axel will scold you when he wakes up for worrying so much."

"Shut up Sora," Roxas sighed, "I know you're trying to make me feel better, but please don't. This happens every time..."

"Rox," Ventus smiled, "You know we'll always be there for you. I know in the past that things didn't work out well, but maybe this time around we can change it." The was a soft knock on the door causing Sora and Ventus to turn around and see Kairi waiting there.

"Hey," the redheaded girl forced a smile as she walked over to the triplets. Her blue eyes looked down at her sleeping older brother wishing there was something she could have done, but her powers always seemed to get in the way. Just recently she started to learn how to control the range in which she could use her powers. Even still it didn't always help because although it might take away the enemy's powers, it also took away her ally's powers as well. "Reno says he'll take us to school today."

"Crap!" Sora exclaimed, "I still have to eat breakfast and get ready!" Without another word the brunette darted out the door, a good deal of ruckus could be heard as he ran through the hallway. Kairi kneeled down next to Roxas placing a sisterly kiss on her older brother's cheek.

"You should rest," Kairi suggested to Roxas, "Professor says you don't have to go to school today." The shadow mutant didn't say anything, just answered with a small nod looking like he wasn't going to follow the girl's suggestion.

"Rox," Ventus sighed as he pulled out Roxas' cell phone, "If anything happens, let us know." Again, Roxas just nodded as he took his cell phone from his brother. "We'll see you after school. I'll be sure that Zexion grabs your homework and notes so you don't fall behind." Kairi gave the shadow mutant a quick hug before she followed Ventus out of the room so they could go to school. Both of them were worried more about Roxas than Axel, because they knew Axel was going to be okay. Roxas on the other hand was beating himself up about the whole thing as if it was his fault, but it wasn't. They had let him down as a brother, like they did in the past, but Ventus was certain this time would be different.

The car ride to school was silent, so silent because Reno didn't even bother to blare his music like he always did. There was an uneasiness in the car as all of them wondered who Maleficent really was at their school. She could be anyone, a student, a teacher, the janitor or even the repair guy. Everyone knew they had to be extra cautious now, and hopefully they would be able to discover Maleficent's secret identity by watching the brotherhood.

Ventus looked outside at the trees that lined the road thinking about the talk he had with Terra. Namine had said that in order to discover Maleficent's hidden identity that they could befriend the brotherhood. He vividly remembered those all seeing blue eyes looking toward him probably implying that he was the one to do such a thing. The run in with the earth mutant made him begin to think that maybe they could become friends, but it might have to be in secret. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Professor Eraqus would accept Terra, but the rest of the students, maybe even the other professors would be anything less than thrilled.

The arrival to school was just a quiet when all of the students from the institute arrived, none of them wanting to talk about anything. Even Demyx was unusually silent as he walked into the school, something beyond ordinary. The brotherhood was gathered together by the flag pole in an obvious disagreement about something. Terra looked over to the drop off zone when Ventus stepped out of the car, two pairs of blue eyes met. The blond knew that the brunette didn't know he could read his thoughts, but the way their eyes connected, he almost didn't have to.

"Is that the shadow mutant we need?" Larxene frowned looking over at the blonde that had just stepped out of the car. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed Terra wasn't listening to her which pissed her off. "Earth to earth mutant! Answer my fucking question!" she screamed as she waved her hand in front of the brunette's face. Riku and Marluxia were both looking at Terra with puzzled looks trying to understand what was going through their friend's head.

"No!" Terra shouted, "Are you fucking blind? That's the one with elemental powers! The one we need isn't here." He glanced over to where Ventus was standing earlier, but he had already left to go into the school. God, he hated Larxene right now.

"Oh well sorry," Larxene growled throwing her hands up in frustration with a well placed roll of her eyes. "I didn't mean to break up the element love fest! No need to get bitchy with me."

"Calm down," Marluxia said stepping between the two before they started fighting. "He must still be at the institute. If we go during lunch he won't be as protected as the last time."

"You're forgetting that there will still be the adults there," Riku sighed, "Not to mention their high tech defense system. Then there is the fact that if all of us disappear during lunch they will get suspicious." The four of them all exchanged glances knowing that the silver haired boy was right, somehow they were going to have to break up into teams. One would have to distract the students here, and the other would have to go the institute to grab the shadow mutant.

"The bell has already rung," said a woman's voice in a stern manner, "All of you, in my office now!" No one needed to turn around to know it was Principal Raven and that it wasn't because they were in trouble with the school that they needed to go into her office. Begrudgingly, the four teens followed the principal to her office where she would most likely tell them some kind of plan she had. She locked the door behind them and activated some kind of system that interfered with other mutant powers and allowed them complete privacy.

"Now is the time to strike." the woman smiled as she transformed into her natural state. Soft greenish blue skin, piercing yellow cat like eyes, and long menacing nails. Her long skin tight black halter dress hugging her body perfectly showing off perfect curves, a hat looking like two horns sitting on her head that protected her thoughts from Eraqus so he couldn't read her mind.

"But before that," Maleficent smirked, "I have learned that there is another mutant is developing the powers of mind reading. We need to be extra cautious, so all of you will need to wear a device that interferes with those powers. Granted, they aren't nearly as extravagant as mine because I can hide it, whereas you cannot." She picked up a small envelope from the desk, sliding out four earrings into the palm of her hand. They were all small simple silver hoops. "They have just recently been made this small, so each of you gets to wear one."

"May I ask which of has developed mind reading powers?" Terra asked as he took the earring looking at it and hoping he didn't need to piece his ear to wear it. However, he had a feeling that he didn't have a choice in this, and he was going to have to pierce his ear. It wouldn't be a problem for Marluxia, Larxene, Riku didn't need to worry about it because all of them already had piercings. Marluxia, Larxene, and Riku didn't have to worry about it because they all already had pierced ears. They simply took out their earrings and replaced them with the ones Maleficent gave them.

"The elemental mutant of the triplets," the transforming mutant sighed, "Ventus, I believe his name was. But he is not the one we are after. Just another obstacle that is easily avoided." The brunette looked at the earring thinking about earlier that morning when he had been training and the element mutant had stumbled across him. It made sense now that the younger teen could read his thoughts, why he had laughed for no reason. Now he knew the reason, the blond had heard his thoughts and that made his face slightly redden at the thought. When they had seen each other in the morning before school his thoughts were being heard. An unsettling feeling kicked him in the stomach the more he thought about the triplet that shared the element powers with him.

"Are you okay Terra?" Riku asked with a concerned look on his face. "You look like you did when we were flying." The brunette cringed at the memory of having to fly here when Maleficent had found him San Diego a few years back. He never had flown before because of his fear of heights and the fact that his element was earth. If he wasn't close to it, like if he was flying, then he would become very sick. The entire flight from San Diego to the east coast he had been in the bathroom throwing up wishing they could have just road tripped it instead.

"I think breakfast isn't agreeing with me," the brunette lied just wanting to get the stupid meeting over with. "If you don't mind, I would like to go to the bathroom before I throw up all over your office."

"Before you go," The woman frowned, "I want you and Riku to distract the students here. Larxene and Marluxia will go to the institute to grab the shadow mutant." She looked at Larxene and Marluxia, "You will be meeting someone outside the gates of the institute. You are to do everything he says, understood?"

"Yeah yeah," Larxene sighed in annoyance waving her hand in a dismissible manner, "Meet dude outside of institute, listen to 'em. Got it."

Maleficent looked at Terra with a disgusted look and waved her hand signaling for him to leave as she pressed the buttons that would allow him to leave. Once allowed to leave, Terra ran to the bathroom, not to throw up, but to think about what to do. He had told Ventus that next time they met that he wouldn't go easy on him, but now he didn't know if he could hurt the blonde. The thought made him feel like he was going to throw up, it was the reason why he didn't really attack the blonde in the forest that morning. It was as if they had been close in a past life or something, either way he was lost as to what he was going to when lunch came around.

**~0~**

Sora sat in class resting his head in his hand letting out a small yawn. Part of it was because of boredom, the other part was because he was still sleepy from the fight that had not only caused him to use his powers, but also to loose sleep. It was like a double hit that only made him wish that Professor Eraqus allowed him to stay at the institute as well. His thoughts traveled to his brother, Roxas, hoping that he was at least getting some sleep because from the looks of it, it looked like he hadn't slept all night. Of course, he knew that when Roxas was depressed that there wasn't much anyone could do about it, even him and Ventus. They knew the best thing to do was let him have some space and just check that he was alright everyday. It was like the time when they were five, and Roxas didn't pick up his toys like he was supposed to. Olette had come over and tripped over them, somehow breaking her arm. Roxas had beat himself up over it for weeks even though Olette told him not to worry about it.

Sora looked at the clock, first period was almost over. Right when the bell rang a splitting headache came over him, like someone had taken a sledge hammer to his head. He screamed in pain clutching his head as blurry images started to flash though his mind, but he couldn't make sense of them. They were going by to quickly, and nothing but blurs of color which seemed to make the headache even worse. The pain was so blinding that he didn't even notice anything that was going on around him. The pain started to lessen as the images started to go black and disappear. He opened his eyes to see the blurry face of Kairi before completely blacking out.

Kairi walked over to the brunette now on the floor looking more relaxed than when she had first arrived when she heard the commotion next door. She knew that his powers must have started to develop. However, she didn't know in what way or why it would cause him so much pain. Thankfully, Zexion was able to get everyone out of the class room using his powers to convince them they should just go get the nurse so that he could rest. She was glad that she had finally begun to master being able to control whose powers she took away, but it drained her. However, Zexion was quick with shuffling everyone out of the classroom so she didn't need to focus long. When the nurse came with a stretcher, she followed them to the nurses office convincing the nurse to let her stay until he woke up. She didn't know how his powers were developing, but it was best to keep it dormant until they were able to get back to the institute.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay instead?" Zexion asked her looking at the sleeping brunette.

"It's okay," the redhead smiled, "You need a break after the whole Roxas incident. Besides, it's more taxing on you to keep his powers under control. I just suck powers away naturally. The only time I need to focus is when I only wish to take a certain someone powers away." The blunette just nodded and left the nurses office to return to his class.

Ventus came running in as Zexion was leaving with worry written all over his face. First Roxas, now Sora. He didn't know how he could take it if his brothers kept causing him to worry like a mother. Kairi put her finger to her lips, with a glare that read, 'if you wake him, I will kill you.' So silently the blond made his way to where his brother was fast asleep. He knew that if Kairi was there that it had something to do with Sora's powers, which worried him even more. He remembered when Roxas' powers went crazy, not a very fond memory. Somehow, his powers developing didn't seem as bad since Terra had helped him with blocking other's thoughts out. Now he felt bad that he wasn't paying more attention otherwise he would have been able to help Sora.

Kairi gave the blond a smile patting the seat next to her. Ventus sat down, and the two of them sat in silence waiting for Sora to wake up.

**~0~**

_Sora felt his heart pounding as he battled with Riku trying to keep an eye on Ventus who was battling Terra, but he couldn't be distracted long because Riku seemed to be demanding his full attention with attack after attack. But it wasn't Ventus' safety that was distracting him, it was Roxas'. He had a gut feeling that something bad was happening and Riku and Terra were here just to distract them. Of course there was no way of confirming his dilemma. All he could do was battle with Riku hoping that Ventus and Roxas were okay._

_He wished that the rest of his friends from the institute were there to help them, but Larxene had paralyzed a good majority of them before running off with Marluxia, Demyx and Zexion following close behind. Even though he trusted Zexion and Dmeyx, he had a feeling that somehow they had lost, because he could feel the force of a powerful mutant close by. The same power that he felt that morning when Roxas and Axel were attacked. If it was that same mutant then Demyx and Zexion wouldn't stand a chance. The only reason they had escaped that morning was because Reno came crashing through with a car to rescue them._

_Eventually both sides were too tired to battle any further, so it ended up in a draw. Riku and Terra disappeared into the trees leaving two of the triplets sitting in the middle of the soccer field trying to catch their breath. A few minutes later Ventus shot up with wide eyes looking towards the institute._

_"Roxas," Ventus said, and that was all he needed to say for Sora to follow after him. Of course when they arrived at the institute, it looked like world war III had happened. Professor Luxord and Xaldin were next to the unconscious Axel, who had started to bleed from his wound he received that morning. The rest of the students were no where to been seen as well as Professor Eraqus._

_"Professor Eraqus is following the person who took Roxas." Ventus explained to Sora as they approached the two professors. "They are too far away for us to catch up." Luxord turned around finally realizing the two were there, his clothes were tattered, his face smeared with rubble and his expression sad. _

_"What's wrong?" Sora asked kneeling next to Xaldin who was attempting to stop Axel's wound from bleeding. The redhead looked extremely pale, beads of sweat rolled down his face, his expression twisted in pain. "He's going to be okay right?"_

_"His wound reopened," Xaldin sighed, "And I can't stop the bleeding without the correct instruments. The institute is ruined along with any mode of transportation we had so we have no way of getting a hold of a hospital or a way to get him to one. Even then it would be dangerous due to his mutant powers."_

_"I could try healing him with water," Ventus suggested even though he had yet to be able to control water. It was worth a shot, and if he succeeded then Axel would live. God forbid that Axel die again like he did in his past lives, Roxas would surely destroy the world this time because he had help. Closing his eyes, he focused on summoning water to help him head Axel wound, at least enough to stop it from bleeding. However, water just ignored his call like a he wasn't worth it, but he wouldn't give up. Minutes passed and eventually Axel died because he wasn't strong enough to save him. Luxord put a hand on the younger blonde's shoulder._

_"There was nothing you could do," the older blond said._

The image darkened and then changed to a different scene.

_Sora looked around in absolute horror. The world was nothing more than a desert, with hurricane like winds blowing trying to push him down, the ground never stopping its shaking and a dark soulless sky above. In the distance was a castle made of blood red bricks, the screams of people could be heard outside which made the brunette shiver. He walked towards the entrance that wasn't guarded and saw Roxas on a thrown commanding the shadow creatures to have both humans and mutants alike be his slaves. _

_A man stood behind him with a pleased grin that almost cut his face in half. Golden eyes lit up, as he strokes his silver colored goatee whispering something to the blonde. Roxas just waved his hand dismissively, not seeming to really care about anything. Sora could see the pain in his brother's eyes and wanted to reach out to him, but something was pulling him back. He looked at his brother slowly start to disappear into darkness and soon the image was gone. _

**~0~**

Sora shot up from the bed in the nurse's office with panicked expression. The sudden movement had startled Ventus so much that he fell out of his chair, secretly glad that Kairi had gone to the bathroom and didn't have to see. The brunette bolted out of the bed and grabbed his brother's hand not even giving him an explanation.

Ventus didn't bother asking, but instead looked into Sora's mind to see what had him so worried. When he saw the Sora had been dreaming about, he shared the fear. If they didn't get back to the institute they would most likely loose Roxas to the darkness, one because they didn't protect him from the man named Xehanort and two because once again they weren't able to save Axel.

They ran through the empty halls, stopping every so often to collect their fellow students from their classes. Thankfully all they need to say was that they needed to go and they were off. Shouts of angry teachers broke the silence as the group darted through the hallway to their cars only to be stopped by the brotherhood.

"School is not out yet," Larxene grinned, "I never would have thought that you would like to fight with there being wittiness around. What would your precious professor think?" Ventus and Sora both exchanged worried glances knowing that the brotherhood was trying to delay them from the more important matters. Ventus closed his eyes trying to focus on allowing Terra to see his thoughts of what Sora had seen in the future. Hopefully, the earth mutant would understand that they needed to rescue their brother or else the world as they knew it would be destroyed.

Terra closed his eyes as strange images flashed through his mind. It was the world as a nothing but barren waste land with the shadow mutant controlling it, but at the same time being controlled by the person that he had seen Maleficent with only a bit older. His eyes opened connecting instantly with another set of blue eyes that he knew all too well. The element mutant was telling the truth that if the person working with Maleficent got ahold of the shadow mutant that the world would end.

"Let them pass," Terra ordered causing the three others of the brotherhood to gawk at him. "I saw the future and if the person working with Maleficent gets ahold of Roxas then the world will end."

"You can't see the future," Marluxia frowned.

"No," the earth mutant sighed, "but Ventus showed me what his brother saw of the future."

"He could be lying to you," Riku said looking at the group of mutants in front of them.

"Elemental mutants can't lie to each other," Terra argued as he looked over at Ventus, "Besides, there is no way we could distract all of them."

"You are such a fun sucker," Larxene complained, "You suck the fun out of everything."

"He doesn't have a point," Marluxia stated, "There is no way we can take all of them. We saw how that worked last time." Finally the brotherhood agreed to let the students of the institute by. Once they were in the clear, they darted for the cars and headed to the institute hoping they would arrive before it was too late. Kairi was focusing on not taking about Reno's powers, but it wasn't working as well as she would have liked so they weren't able to super speed there way to the institute. Ventus and Sora could only hope that there brother and Axel were alright, because if anything happened to them then it was too late.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, sorry for not updating fast. It has been a crazy summer so please forgive me. . anyways. Here is the long awaited chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will be coming, but we'll have to see.

Please review and let me know how I am doing. You inspire me to write.

~Daruma-sama


	14. The Beginning of the End

**~14~**

**The Beginning of the End**

Roxas had fallen asleep next to Axel, despite his struggle to remain awake. Luxord smiled as he placed a blanket over the sleeping boy just happy that he seemed to sleeping a little now. The professor warned him to stay close to the shadow and fire mutants because of what they had discussed about the triplet's past lives. It had them all worried especially with Axel already wounded. If one little thing went wrong, the stitches could easily be torn causing the redhead to lose more blood that he couldn't afford to lose.

Luxord was just about sit down and start reading his gambler magazine when the alarms screamed loudly. Just as Professor Eraqus suspected, someone was attacking the institute to get to Roxas. He let out a silent curse as he grabbed one of his playing cards, throwing it outside to create an illusion that would hopefully keep whoever it was out. Nevertheless, Professor Eraqus went through special precautions to makes sure everything in the room was plastic and that it was made so that the earth mutant couldn't sense they where they were. How the Professor Eraqus managed something like that, well he learned not to even ask anymore. It was just easier that way.

Roxas groaned as the alarms gave him a headache, something he was not fond of waking up to. Whoever came to mess with him was going to get it cause he wasn't in a good mood. First, Axel had been seriously hurt because of him. Second, he had gotten little sleep from worrying about the redhead. And third, he now had a headache. Someone was going to seriously get an ass whooping and he didn't care who it was. He rather hoped it was the Xehanort guy because he wanted to give that guy a piece of his mind for harming Axel. Anger bubbled over inside him and the continued blaring of the alarms didn't help his headache, only made it worse. Seriously wanting to kill something, he got up and made his way to exit only to have Professor Luxord block his way.

"Move," the younger blonde demanded, dark power oozing out of him. "I am not in the mood to argue. Move or be moved professor."

"Don't you think you should protect Axel?" Luxord asked attempting to sneakily convince the teenager to stay. He watched Roxas think it over, so many different emotions played over the boy's face it was hard to keep track, but the ones he did remember the ones of absolute fury and complete devastation.

"Fine," Roxas snapped going back to sit next to Axel. He knew that Luxord was only saying that to keep him locked in the room and sadly it worked. After all he had seen of his past lives he knew better to ever leave Axel alone for a single minute. If worse came to worse he could transport them all to the shadow realm where whoever was attacking couldn't reach them. His blue eyes landed on the redhead's sleeping face causing him to smile slightly. Axel was alive, that was all that mattered right now. Knowing that seemed to even weakened his headache, something he was very much grateful for. That was until the voices of the creatures in the shadow realm began to beg him to be released.

_'Release us,'_ the voices hissed like the wind, _'We will take vengeance on the person who hurt Axel.'_

_'No,'_ Roxas growled, _'the last time the world was almost destroyed.'_

_'Bah,'_ the voices crackled into each other, '_The world can always be rebuilt.'_

_'I like it the way it is now thank you very much,' _the shadow mutant scoffed.

_'You don't listen,' _the voices said, dripping the worlds out slowly, _'Axel will die.'_

_'SHUT UP!'_ Roxas screamed. He wasn't going to let Axel down this time. This time he was going to protect Axel, he had lost the redhead too many times already.

_'You aren't strong enough to protect him,' _the voices rustled_. 'you need us.'_

_'No I don't!' _the blonde argued.

_'Yesss,'_ hissed the voices, _'Releasssse usssss'_

Roxas clutched the sides of his head and shut his eyes tight trying to banish the voices that were in his head. From past memories he knew it was stupid to listen to them, every time he released them they would try to end the world. He needed to protect Axel with his own powers, not with the powers of the creatures in the shadow realm. The entire room started to shake as the sounds of everything metal outside being torn apart from the building, screeching like a nail on a chalkboard.

Luxord's eyes narrowed as he glanced at the monitor on the wall next to the door. Flipping through the different camera feeds, he saw no one in the institute, but he knew better. Someone had passed through his illusion, but they weren't picked up by the cameras and that worried him. Maleficent had the powers to change into anything, so maybe she was a bug right now. Made sense, she could be a cockroach or something. The man named Xehanort was obviously the one behind the metal being ripped off everything, but he could do that from outside.

The institute wasn't going to last for long, and from what he could see with Xaldin and Professor Eraqus fighting, it wasn't going so well. Lexaeus was currently off on a business trip for the professor and wouldn't return for another two days. Xehanort had obviously come prepared. Twirling a card around his fingers in frustration, he continued to watch the monitor. God how he wished he could be fighting right now, but it was his job to keep the two students safe.

He glanced back at Roxas, who was hunched over holding his head as if it was about to explode. The boy's powers were too much, and if he didn't do something soon then it wouldn't end well. They needed back up, but the rest of the students were at school and there was no way of getting ahold of them without giving away the location of the hideout.

Luxord sighed knowing that Namine's powers were sometimes limited, but hoped that she could see what was happening. The only thing that worried him was that the brotherhood would hold up the students if they did try to come back. No one doubted that Maleficent was behind the scenes controlling the group of four mutant teenagers.

Maleficent appeared outside the door to the hideout studying the surroundings. She had checked everywhere in the institute and found no traces of the shadow mutant anywhere. Nevertheless, this area made her entire body tingle meaning one thing. Someone's mutant powers were at work and she knew it was most likely the illusion mutant. It made sense since he was nowhere to be found and his powers were the best for hiding things. Bright cat yellow eyes examined everything and eventually falling upon the single card on the ground.

"tsk tsk," Maleficent smirked, "Leaving traces of illusions behind." She torn the card in half causing the illusion to disappear and a door to appear in front of her. So this is where they were hiding, in a room made of plastic. Professor Eraqus knew they would be attacking again to try and steal the shadow mutant away. Too bad the illusion mutant always left a card in his illusions so they could easily be broken.

Luxord tensed as he felt his illusion being broken and looked at the monitor to see Maleficent standing outside. Of course she would be able to find the one weakness in his illusions. She was known not only for her transformation skills, but also for her intelligence. Even though the room was locked with numerous encryptions, he knew that it wouldn't take her long to unlock it.

**~0~**

Reno cursed as he swerved through traffic that always seemed to surround the high school at all hours. He had told Kairi not to worry about trying to control her powers, his heavy foot would get them to the institute quick enough. Maybe not lightening speed, but close enough. People honked and cursed as he cut them off, ran red lights and even went up on the sidewalk causing pedestrians to jump for cover. Not like he would ever hit a person or another car, his reflexes were too quick for that. Besides, this was an emergency and emergencies call for drastic measures.

"Remind me never to let you drive me to the hospital if I ever get pregnant." Kairi hissed as she clung to the door for dear life wishing that her brother wouldn't drive like a madman without his powers. This was the exact reason why she always rode with Axel because he was the exact opposite of Reno when it came to driving. It always surprised her that Reno had yet to get into a car accident or even a ticket... not like the cops could ever keep up with him anyways. There were so many illegal modification on the car that she swore it could go the speed of light even without his super powers juicing it up. The Fast and Furious had nothing on Reno's driving.

"I think I prefer flying..." Sora groaned holding his stomach becoming unnaturally pale.

"Don't throw up yo," Reno warned as he glanced back at the brunette with his rear-view mirror. "I just got the leather seats."

"Please keep your eyes on the road!" Ventus yelled as he tried to comfort Sora. He knew it wasn't just Reno's driving that was making him sick. Constant images were flashing through his brother's mind as the future seemed unable to make up its mind on what outcome it wanted. It was almost making him just as dizzy from it as well. Like being on a carousel while on acid or something, not that he'd know, but he could imagine this was what it would feel like. Or maybe the Winnie the Pooh ride while on acid would be a better relation. He looked over at Kairi who had her eyes closed as she obviously focused on trying to contain her powers, but is seemed that Reno was still effected by them since the car wasn't already at the institute.

"He won't crash," Namine stated as she sat with her feet on the seat, knees to close to her chest, sketching like always. She seemed calm to everyone, but on the inside she wasn't. The future was blind to her for once, that had never happened before. Somehow Sora was able to see where she couldn't. Even when she tried to sketch the future, nothing came up but just a bunch of scribbling nonsense. Her blue eyes glanced over at the green brunette wishing he could enlighten them on what was happening, but he was predisposed with car sickness. Something was terribly wrong, and it frustrated her to no end that she couldn't see it.

Ventus' eyes widened as he heard the voices of Professor Eraqus, Xaldin, Luxord and Roxas. Professor Eraqus and Xaldin were fighting the man named Xehanort while Luxord was with Roxas and Axel getting ready to fight Maleficent. He winced as he heard the voices screaming in Roxas' head begging to be released so they could take vengeance for what was done to Axel. At least this time it seemed that Roxas knew better than to give in. But that wasn't the issue at hand, Xehanort and Maleficent were attacking the institute and Maleficent was a step away from getting her hands on his brother. The other issue was that he couldn't hear the thoughts of Xehanort or Maleficent at all and that bothered him.

_'Professor,'_ Ventus thought trying to reach the professor.

_'Yes Ventus,'_ Professor Eraqus answered back, _'I know that Maleficent is close to getting Roxas. Unfortunately I am a bit busy, but you'll be here soon and Luxord will hold her off for now.'_

Ventus let out a frustrated sigh, his eyes connecting with Namine's. He knew that she couldn't see what would happen, but he didn't mention anything about it. There were more serious concerns, and getting back to the institute fast enough was the biggest issue at the moment. But they were finally on the empty road that led to the institute, just a little bit more and they would be there. Ventus continued to try and hear the thoughts of Maleficent and Xehanort, but it was in vain. It was like he kept running into a brick wall, something was shielding their minds from him. The institute was finally in sight, but the moment it was the car was lifted into the air like everything else metal.

Kairi opened her eyes and focused on Xehanort hoping that if she focused enough she could take away his powers. Surely enough the car dropped back onto the road this a loud thunk, probably ruining something. Judging by Reno's irritated look, most defiantly something was ruined.

Xehanort turned to see five of the students exit out of the car ready to fight. He knew the red haired girl was the one stopping his powers, but she wouldn't for long. He focused his powers so that they were so powerful that her tiny little invisible shield, that stopped mutants powers, couldn't contain them. The invisible shield cracked and exploded causing the girl to faint from the force.

"Kairi!" Reno shouted as he caught his little sister and Rude pulled up behind them. Aqua, Rude, Demyx and Zexion exited the car completely ready to fight with the rest of their friends. Before they had left the school they had decided that they would divide into two different teams, one would distract Xehanort and the other would protect Roxas and Axel. The plan was to send Demyx and Zexion into the institute while the rest distracted Xehanort. They were hoping that he would be so focused on not letting Sora and Ventus help their brother that he wouldn't notice Demyx's and Zexion's disappearance. Reno handed Kairi to Rude, because everyone knew that Rude couldn't do much in this battle considering his powers were to turn his entire body into metal.

Sora absorbed the sun's energy and created a powerful beam of light (this reminds me of solar beam from pokemon...) directed at Xehanort. Ventus summoned the power of wind to keep the metal objects away from his fellow teammates because he still wasn't comfortable enough with his earth powers to use them. Aqua skillfully jumped through the many pieces of metal, melting them as she touched them with a little smile. Reno was attempting to knock Xehanort down, but there were too many metal objects protecting him, making him almost impossible to reach. Namine was drawing flying bricks directed at Xehanort, however none of them ever touched the man.

Getting frustrated, Xehanort closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and focused his powers to the point that anything metal within a 5 mile radius began to come to him. Metal parts started to come in so many directions that the students were having problems protecting themselves. The two cars came flying towards all the students about ready to smash into them when the earth suddenly shot up in front of them creating a giant wall. Vines shot out of the wall, tangling the cars into a mess while the rest of the metal objects seemed to stop around them.

Out of the forest appeared the brotherhood, ready to help. Together, they seemed to be fairing better against the metal mutant as he seemed to have more and more difficulty evading their attacks or even launching attacks himself. Xehanort growled in frustration knowing that it was because of the shadow mutant's brothers that his plan had failed. Well, if he was going to get ahold of the shadow mutant then he would have to destroy the element mutant and light mutant as well. Summoning the anything metal to completely surround him, he focused half of it to attack the element mutant, and the other half to attack the light mutant.

Terra's eyes widened as he saw thousands of metal objects attack Ventus with such a force that the blonde's wind couldn't even stop it. Before his mind could catch up to his body, he pushed the blonde out of the way while summoning an earth wall that he knew wouldn't last long. The wall held off most of the metal objects, but the rest shot through. A large pipe impaled itself in his right thigh, a blade of a fan sliced open his back and thousands of small pieces of metal cut and bruised his entire body. He looked up to see a car coming straight for him, but it was too late. He couldn't move. He didn't have the energy to summon the earth either. It was over.

Ventus could barely put together what had just happened, but he knew that he needed to protect the person that protected him. Suddenly the wind ignited into a fiery storm that surrounded them and protected them from the remaining metal items. Once the metal items were all completely melted, even the car, the fire disappeared as quickly as it had come. Ventus let out a tired sigh as he walked over to the brunette, feeling like he had just run a marathon. Collapsing to his knees next Terra, he took of his shirt and pressed it against the large gash on the brunettes back. He knew better than to deal with the pipe sticking out of Terra's leg for now.

Riku looked over to his left to see Terra all bloody on the the ground a good distance away, but that was the least of his worries right now. The other half of the metal objects were headed towards the light mutant, and even though the brunette was powerful, he wasn't doing too well. The silver haired teen ran over, using his powers to have the metal objects form together and create a wall of some sort. It was draining for him to do it, but when they came to help the students of the institute they knew what they were getting themselves into.

Sora looked over at Riku with a curious look. He had never excepted that the person he was supposed to fight in his images of the future, was the person that was helping him. What an odd turn of events. His thoughts were interrupted when a sword managed it's way through the metal wall, heading straight towards the silver haired teen next to him. He pushed Riku out of the way only to have the sword tear through his own left shoulder and then a small metal ball slammed into the side of his head. Darkness started to take his vision over as he thought of how they needed to get somewhere safe otherwise both of them would die. Without even knowing it, he opened the portal to the realm of light, dragging Riku with him. The two teenagers fell to the ground as Sora completely lost consciousness.

Riku's aquamarine eyes narrowed as he noticed the large gaping wound on the brunette's left shoulder and some blood on the left side of the brunette's head as well. Knowing he had to stop the bleeding took off his own shirt and tore it up to make make-shift bandages for the other teenager's shoulder and head. Using his powers to apply force to the shoulder wound as he bandaged it as tight as he could, he somehow managed to stop it from bleeding altogether. He used some of the extra cloth to clean the blood off Sora's head before bandaging that up as well.

When he was finished he looked around finally realizing that they were in some kind of different dimension or something. Everything was completely white except the outlines of everything making it look very cartoonish, the only things that looked normal were themselves. With a heavy sigh, he gently placed Sora's head in his lap knowing he couldn't do anything until the brunette woke up.

**~0~**

Demyx and Zexion ran through the institute using ice bridges to cross where there were holes in the hallway floors. It took them longer than they expected to get to the room where Luxord, Axel and Roxas were, but they seemed to make it there in time. Maleficent had managed to just open the door only to get blasted by water from both Demyx and Zexion.

"Come on," Demyx said as he approached the door with Luxord standing guard, "That won't work for long." The blonde professor was surprised to see Demyx and Zexion considering they were supposed to be in school, but then again, Namine could see the future. The only thing that troubled him was that she hadn't warned them earlier about what was going to happen. There was something go on with the triplets that even Namine couldn't seem to see. That morning it was Ventus and Sora that sensed Roxas and Axel were in trouble, not Namine.

"Demyx," Luxord ordered, "Grab Roxas. I'll grab Axel." The water mutant nodded and picked up Roxas who was now out cold from his own battle with the voices in his head. The blonde professor gently picked up the redhead making sure not to move him in a way that would reopen his wound.

"Freeze," Zexion shouted outside as Maleficent tried to come at them. When Demyx and Luxord exited the room Maleficent was frozen like a statue, but they knew it wouldn't keep her for long. Without another word the three of them darted out of the institute the way they came recreating the ice bridges when needed. The institute started to shake more as more and more metal pieces were ripped apart and crashed through the walls outside to where another battle was happening.

"We can't take Roxas out there," Luxord said knowing that was exactly what Xehanort wanted. If they took the shadow mutant out there then it was just a matter of time before the metal mutant got what he came for. Zexion nodded in a silent agreement, but they didn't know where else to go. Their plan had only been to split up into two groups and distract the two people who were attacking and protect the person they were after.

"The gummi ship," Demyx suggested, "it isn't made of metal. Professor Eraqus said he made it just in case his former friend came. I am assuming this is one of those times."

"Let's just hope it is still intact." the blonde professor said as they tried to make their way to the hanger. They kept running into dead ends because of the ceiling or walls caving in, completely blocking the hallways. Eventually Zexion got frustrated and focused on using the powers he absorbed from Roxas taking them to the shadow realm. They easily walked through the rubble then returned to the real world to create ice bridges to cross the few remaining gaps in the hallway floors.

When they reached the hanger, the gummi ship had rubble all over it, but otherwise it looked like it was intact. The opening for the hanger roof had been made of metal so it was obviously gone which would make it easy for them to exit out of the hanger. Luxord took out one of the copies of the gummi ship keys and unlocked it causing the bridge to lower allowing them to go into the ship. He took Axel to the medical room of the ship, laying the redhead down and strapping him in for the lift off. Thankfully the fire mutant's stitches hadn't come undone, so everything was going okay for now.

Demyx followed Luxord into the room placing Roxas on the other bed and strapping the sleeping blonde in as well. He knew that if Roxas woke up without knowing where Axel was then it would be worse than facing Xehanort. Shivering at the thought, he finished making sure that Roxas wouldn't go anywhere during take off and then went to the cockpit to find Zexion going over everything.

"Everything is good," Zexion said softly flipping some switches as he sat down in the driver's seat.

"Who said you could drive kid?" Luxord frowned, "You don't even have your driver's license yet. Move." The blunette just rolled his eyes, but did as he was told, taking a seat next to Demyx as the engine started. Once all systems were online and ready to go, the older blonde eased the gummi ship out of the hanger. They got a good look at what was left of the institute and the damages done from the battle. It looked like the rest of their team was grouped together without a sign of Xehanort anywhere.

_'you can land Luxord.'_ Professor Eraqus thought to the older blonde, _'Xehanort retreated and we need to get Terra into the medical room in the gummi ship.'_

Luxord frowned at the name of one of the brotherhood, but he knew that there was no arguing with the professor. Besides, the brotherhood were still kids and if one of them got hurt, enemy or not they would help them. Finding a clear place to land, Luxord parked the gummi ship and opened the door so everyone could get in. To his surprise there were two more from the brotherhood with them, but it seemed that Sora and the last person of the brotherhood was missing, that he did not like.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the late update, but yeah. You should thank Lifeless_heartless for kicking me in the ass. I am very grateful for Lifeless_heartless right now. So you know how I love to leave you with cliff hangers. bwahahahaha, i am so evil, but it's fun. Don't worry though, Lifeless_heartless will kick me again if I start to slack. I should also congratulate Lifeless_heartless for being the 50th reviewer. So Lifeless_heartless gets to have a oneshot written by me. So the next goal is going to be 75. So the 75th reviewer gets a oneshot written by me.

Edited by Lifeless_heartless. 7-28-10

Thank you for all your support.

~Daruma-sama


	15. See the Light, It's a Good Thing

**~15~**

**See the Light, it's a Good Thing**

Weary aquamarine eyes watched thin lines form shapes only to unravel into another. When they had first arrived in the strange world the thin lines just looked like a cartoonist drawing a perspective drawing using buildings, that wasn't the case now. Four lines that were much thicker than the others rippled around each other like water. Blurry images swirled within the ripples causing Riku to lean closer squinting his eyes in order to get a better look. A brilliant flash of light engulfed him pulling him into the watery content allowing him to float above the now clear scene.

Destruction. Utter destruction. The earth littered with the remains of buildings, trees, and bodies. The sky a fire red of sunset, yet there was no lingering sun or stars sparkling with greetings of the night. The water of the ocean and rivers polluted with oil, blood and the remains of various objects like a plane had just crashed into it. The air could actually be seen in a disgusting mustard yellow haze that seemed to sit between space and the earth.

The earth began to shake violently dislodging some rubble into the murky waters of the ocean while other parts fell into the vast crack that split the land. Two figures shadowed by the mustard haze walked out of the ground's wound and stopped as the wound healed itself and vanished. Hurricane winds commanded the air into ranks, leaving the eye of the hurricane clear. In the center was a brunette and blonde, both with bright blue eyes.

"Looks like they were here too." The the blonde frowned as he bent down to touch the earth only to remove his hand quickly and placing it to his chest as if it hurt. "The elements are in so much pain... Just like the last place Sora." He closed his eyes letting silent tears run down his face, hands clutched into fists. The brunette rested a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder and kneeled next to him.

"I'm sorry Ven," Sora sighed as he attempted to wipe the blonde's tears away. "My visions haven't been clear since..."

"We should have listened!" Ventus screamed as he shot up and pushed his brother away, "Roxas knew the past and we didn't listen to learn from our mistakes! Now they have control over Roxas and it is our fault! The world is dying Sora!"

"Ven," the brunette said with a sad expression, "We have been through this many times. Maybe next time.."

"Next time?" the blonde interrupted, "What next time? The planet is dying! Look into the future and tell me what you see? I doubt you'll see anything good. And you can't lie to me because I know what you are thinking." The two brothers remained silent as both of them closed their eyes to look into the future both of them feared more than the present. After what seemed like hours they opened their eyes, looking at each other with sadness.

Riku watched the two brothers and had a feeling that whatever they had seen wasn't good meaning that what the elemental mutant had said earlier was probably true. His eyes scanned the barren wasteland wondering just how things had gotten so bad and how long the world had until it ended up like this. The scene before him darkened and disappeared only to be replaced by another scene, a scene where the institute was repaired and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

There was a strong pull that led him into the institute through the halls and into the room where he saw one of the blonde triplets just gazing out into the distance. Dried up tears remained imprinted on the boy's face, his eyes blank and dead as if nothing else mattered to him anymore. The soft buzzing sound entered the room as the balcony windows opened to allow Xehanort into the room.

The silver haired teen narrowed his eyes knowing that whatever the reason that man was there, wasn't a good thing. He never knew the dark skinned man, but he did know that it was from him that Maleficent was taking orders from and that after everything that had occurred recently that he was not to be trusted. There was something telling him that this man was the reason for horrible future that was to come.

"Don't worry," Xehanort smirked as he closed the distance between him and the blonde. "You're friend hasn't been harmed. We simply put him away so that nothing can harm him. That is what you're worried about isn't it?" Those words trigged life back into the blue eyes that were now full of rage.

"If what you say is true, take me to him!" the teen growled. "Maybe then I will spare your life."

"Not so fast," the older man chuckled, "I can kill him anytime and anywhere I please. So I would suggest being on your best behavior if you care for his safety."

"What do you want?" the blonde hissed as he crossed his arms.

"I want you to join me." Xehanort smiled, "Think of it. A world were you wouldn't have to worry about your friend being killed by humans just for being different. Mutants are starting to outnumber humans and if you join me we could put the humans in their place. Isn't that what you want? A world were you wouldn't have to fear of loosing the ones you love?" Riku noticed the blonde start to loosen up as he seemed to be thinking about the possibilities of what that could mean. Xehanorts confident smirk didn't escaped his eyes either, because they both knew that the blonde was ready to give in.

"Fine," the teenager agreed, "but if anything happens to Axel, anything, I will kill you and make sure that you suffer forever in the afterlife."

"I can only promise his safety once the humans are subdued." the older man replied, "Once we start the war to take over, they will try to hunt all of us down."

"Then you have no deal." the blonde, that Riku was now sure was Roxas, retorted.

"But you forget that I have your fire mutant friend's life in my hands." Xehanort smirked, "All I am saying is that this war is going to happen regardless if you're on my side or not, but we will have a better chance of winning if you join us. Once we win you won't have to worry about loosing him ever again. But if we loose there is a high chance that the humans will hunt you down and kill both of you."

"Fine, I will join you," Roxas said after a brief moment of silence. "But I want to see Axel now."

"But of course." the silver haired adult smirked as he turned to the balcony window. "Follow me."

Riku watched the scene disappear again only to be replaced with a scene he would have rather not seen. The barren wasteland he had seen earlier was bad enough, but now to actually see the death of thousands of people was horrifying. Strange creatures that had mostly white bodies (nobodies) filled the streets of the city taking hostage those who didn't fight and kill those who did. These creatures ranged in various sizes and forms, from human sized one all the way to ones larger than multistoried buildings.

He spotted a blonde in the middle of the battle shooting purple lighting at the military tanks and aircraft. When the purple lightning hit the vehicles they either lost control crashing or blew up on the spot. More of the white creatures seemed to come out of a strange black crack in the sky that hovered behind the blonde. For some reason time seemed to freeze in place, and the only things that weren't effected were the white creatures and the blonde.

Riku held his breath when even the white creatures that the blonde seemed to be summoning stopped dead in their tracks. He looked at the blonde realizing just how shocked the boy looked and then followed the blue gaze to see a redhead walking towards him. He recognized the redhead from school and knew he could control fire due to the incident of the tall teenager lighting a trash can on fire like a dragon.

"What are you doing here?" the blonde demanded, "It's dangerous! Leave!"

"Roxas!" the redhead shouted as he grabbed the blonde's hands in his own, "You have to stop this! Look around! Is this what you want? To bring pain and suffering?"

Roxas looked around at everything frozen in time, his gaze lingering on the faces of people who didn't attack him, but were caught in the crossfire. A child crying for his mother who had been smashed by parts of a building. A father trying to lead his wife and two children away not noticing the giant foot of one of the white creatures about to smash them. His blue eyes began to water as he looked up at the redhead.

"No," Roxas replied, "but if I don't kill them then they will kill you because we are different. I've lost you too many times Axel and I don't want to have to go through that again."

"Roxas," Axel whispered before he gently kissed the blonde, "If this is the path you choose I will have to stand against you. I won't let you kill innocent people just to protect me."

"But these people want to kill us!" the blonde shouted pushing Axel away, "You would choose them over me even though they wish to kill us!"

"Roxas," the redhead said gently as if dealing with a wounded animal. "Professor Eraqus told us that we were to use our powers to help people. If we help them then they wouldn't be afraid of us anymore, but what you're doing is giving them more of a reason to want to kill all of us. Don't you understand?"

"It's you who doesn't understand!" Roxas shouted as he pointed towards the redhead, "I have seen the past and these creatures never change! Even when we do try to help them, even when they think we are gods they still wish to destroy us! Why? Because we are a threat!"

Riku's eyes shifted from the two mutants arguing to everything around them starting to move in slow motion meaning whatever time freeze they were in was starting to fade. He looked back at the two who seemed oblivious to their surroundings so lost in argument about what was right from wrong. Time slowly began to speed up and one of the military personnel raised his gun to aim at the distracted Roxas, but it was also at that moment that Axel seemed to notice time being restored. Riku didn't even realize what had happened until it was all over. He looked down at the blood seeping through the redhead's shirt who was now on the ground in front of the blonde who was in complete and utter shock. A transparent barrier formed around the two as Roxas dropped to his knees as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding coming from Axel's chest.

"Why?" Roxas cried, "Why do you always do this?"

"Because..." Axel whispered between gasps of air, "I love you..." He coughed wetly and let out a small cry from the pain.

"But you just said that you would fight against me," the blonde said still trying to stop the bleeding, "Why would you say that then save me? I don't understand."

"I said..." the redhead started to reply only to go into a coughing fit, each cough spewing out more blood than the last. "I said... I would...fight...you...not...kill...you...I..."

"Axel shut up!" Roxas cried, "We have to get you to Demyx! He'll be able to heal you and then everything will be better. Please hang in there."

"Be strong," Axel smiled weakly, "I'll see you... again..." With those last words he closed his eyes and took his final breath.

"Axel!" the blonde screamed, "Axel!" He held the redhead close and began to cry so hard his entire body was shaking. The white creatures started to destroy everything in their path, reducing the entire city to nothing but rubble in the matter of minutes. However, they didn't stop there, but just marched off in different directions destroying everything in their path making the land look a lot like what Riku had seen in the first vision of the future. A sudden flash of light engulfed him making the image to disappear.

Riku blinked his eyes a bunch of times trying to get the white spots in his eyes to go away. When he finally was able to see again he realized he was back in the realm of light, though he doubted he ever left. The brunette's head was still in his lap and the place once again looked like a perspective drawing.

"Oww," Sora groaned as his right hand immediately went to his head. "Riku!" he shouted suddenly as he remembered what had transpired before he blacked out. He shot straight up only to have more pain run though his head as he hit something hard. Not only that, but there was pain from his left shoulder as well.

"Shit!" Riku groaned holding his bleeding nose. He could tell it wasn't broken, but if the brunette had hit him at a different angle it would have been. "Geeze, calm down I'm right here."

"Sorry," the brunette smiled softly. He blinked a few time to get the black spots out of his vision before looking around at the strange with space they were in. A question was about to leave his lips, but then he stopped already knowing the answer. They were in the realm of light, he could feel the warmth of it spread through his body. His eyes closed as he summoned the dark creature of the realm of light with glowing yellow eyes. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he thought about how most would think of creatures of light to be white, not black. Some of the creatures of light were white, but not all of them. A small black creature standing on two legs, but hunched over with a round head and two little antennas sticking out of it appeared.

"Will you please find a moogle?" Sora asked the black creature which gave a small nod before disappearing. He knew that he probably could have summoned one, but his head was throbbing so badly that he doubted he could focus long enough.

"What was that?" Riku asked curiously.

"A heartless," the light mutant smiled, "They are the lost souls that wander the earth. In time they will be reborn."

"What about white creatures that your brother controls?" the silver haired teen asked remembering what he saw in the future.

"What do you mean?" Sora replied completely baffled about what Riku was talking about. The only thing he knew for certain was that they were talking about Roxas.

**~0~**

_A short blonde male somewhere in his late teens rode into Salem, Massachusetts to pick up tools for his family's __farm from the best known blacksmith in the region. Alexander Smith. The two had grown up together as best friends only to have it lead to something more, something they both had to keep secret. It was the reason why the blonde made frequent visits to Alexander even if they were sometimes unnecessary, but the blonde's family didn't seem to notice or care. It had been hard on the blonde when Alexander moved away after the terrible fire that claimed his entire family. It had been almost a year since it happened and the blonde was just happy that Alexander didn't seem to be blaming himself anymore. Yes, they knew it had be partially his fault, but neither of them knew much about their gifts then. They had becomes so close because both of them had powers that they had to keep secret, powers that could be seen as witchcraft. _

_As the blonde rode into the village there was an unfamiliar silence and the villagers seemed to be looking at him with a variety of different looks. The looks ranged from sadness all the way to outright rage. Something was wrong, he could feel it in his very bones, but he couldn't put his finger on it. When he arrived at his best friend's house he felt his insides turn and his heart stop. The windows were dark with no glow from the fires of the forge. There was no noise coming from inside of Alexander working on making something. Everything was eerily silent and dark. _

_The blonde shook his head trying to be optimistic and telling himself that his redheaded best friend was still asleep. He doubted it, though, because his powers had given him a glimpse of the past and every time something happened to the redhead. He only hoped that this time the past wouldn't repeat itself. Slowly, he pushed open the door to look around and see that everything was left as if Alexander had been in the process of making something, but stopped and just left it there. _

_"He's not here," said a low voice from behind the blonde._

_"What do you mean?" the blonde asked as he turned around to face the village minister, Samuel Parris. (1)_

_"He was seen performing witchcraft," Parris replied with a scowl, "He had to be taken care of."_

_"What?" the blonde screamed as he felt the world collapsing in on him. "What makes you think that he was using witchcraft? And what did you do to him?"_

_"There is no need to shout Mr. Williams," the minister said softly. "He deceived us all and I am sorry you had to find out this way." _

_The blonde took a deep breath to control himself for the time being. He knew that a sudden lashing out wouldn't get him anywhere because he needed information to know who to punish for this horrible act. Someone had to have convinced the village that Alexander was using witchcraft, and when he knew who, they would pay dearly for it. _

_"I'm sorry," the younger male replied, "I'm just angry that I didn't see it sooner. We have been friends for as long as I could remember."_

_"It's not your fault." Parris sighed, "He must have used his witchcraft on you so you wouldn't notice. My daughter just happened to be walking by his house when she noticed."_

_"And what did she see?" the blonde asked with a slightly raised eyebrow. He had a feeling that she had seen Alexander start the fires without any kind of tool, because that was the redhead's powers after all._

_"She saw him create a fire..." the older man said, "in his hands."_

_"I see," Williams replied with his eyes cast down wondering how his friend could have been so careless. _

_"At first I didn't believe her," the minister chuckled softly at first before becoming more serious, "thought she was just making things up to get my attention. You know how young children can be sometimes. Anyways, I figured I would give her the attention she wanted and played along with her, but when I looked into window I knew it wasn't some childish imagination. She had been right... We should have known with his unnaturally red hair, the strange marks on his cheeks, the cat green eyes. All the signs were there, but he must have gotten to us before we could single him out. "_

_"And his punishment?" the blonde asked noting the slight tremor in his voice. _

_"Hanged of course," Parris gravely answered. _

_"Did he struggle?" the young boy asked hoping that maybe Alexander had resisted and ran away. He was doubtful because the minister probably would have told him and his friend would have come to his house. _

_"No," the minister replied, "We knocked him out, afraid of him casting some kind of spell upon us."_

_"You didn't even give him a trial?" Williams growled trying to keep his anger under control._

_"There was undeniable evidence." the old man retorted, "If we had given him any chance he would have controlled us all."_

_"You're wrong." the blonde smirked, "He had no control over such things. Me on the other had, I have control over things you couldn't possibly imagine. If you should have feared anyone, it should have been me."_

_"Y-you're one t-too?" Minister Parris stuttered with eyes wide in fear. _

_"Yes," the young boy hissed, "And because you and the rest of the village didn't give him a fair trial I curse the village of Salem, Massachusetts! For eight months this village will be seized by the fear of witchcraft and will accuse each other. You're daughter will be the first to suffer and start the mass hysteria. And for Alexander and myself, no one will remember us. It will look like everyone went insane and it will end with you no longer being minister of this village. This is your punishment!"_

_There was a tearing sound as the gates to the underworld were opened and the nobodies entered the village of Salem to corrupt the minds of the people who lived there. Purple jets of electricity flowed into every villager as well, cursing them for the crime they had committed. The next month of February Betty Parris became strangely sick and at the end of the month people were being convicted as being witches. And just like the blonde promised, the village fell into mass hysteria for eight months._

**~0~**

Roxas woke up breathing heavily as if he had actually been in the past creating the Salem witch trials. He took a deep breath knowing that in a way he did, but that was a past life and there was no way for him now to do that. Although, the memory gave him the knowledge he needed to learn how to completely control his powers. He could place curses on people and actually decide what kind of curse he wants placed on them. Not only that, but he now had a full understanding of the creatures that lurked in the underworld. Back when he was Lucifer, they were dark shadows because they weren't fully formed, but fully formed they were white creatures that had no real existence... nobodies.

His blue eyes scanned the room he was in noticing Axel was close by, but what surprised him was seeing Terra there as well with Ven asleep in a chair next to the earth mutants bed. He would have been been confused by this if he couldn't see into the past, but he knew that Terra resembled Ven's lover in the past. He shook his head with a small smile wondering if his brother figured it out yet, and vaguely wondered if Sora realized the same about Riku.

After Roxas stretched, he summoned a nobody to guard Axel while he figured out what happened when he was unconscious. It felt nice to not have to have the nobodies' voices yelling at him and now have control over his powers. It seemed that even the past hurt, it was helpful to learn from. He wasn't going to leave Axel unguarded and if anyone tried to harm the redhead more nobodies would be summoned to protect him. When he exited the gummi ship he noticed that the institute was badly damaged meaning there was a huge battle that he missed. That wouldn't happen anymore because the nobodies would no longer knock him unconscious.

"I'm glad you're doing better Roxas," said the voice of no other than Professor Eraqus. "We are gathering what we can from the rubble and then we are going to go to another location."

"I can fix it," the shadow mutant said confidently.

"It's okay Roxas," the head professor smiled, "We have other places to go and I don't want to push yourself."

"No, I want to." the blonde sighed, "It's my fault this happened." Before Professor Eraqus could argue he closed his eyes and concentrated on controlling reversing time. From his visions of the past he learned that he could reverse time to fix things, but not bring people back to life.

"Roxas please stop," said Ven's voice. A soft pressure appeared on the shadow mutant's shoulder causing him to open his eyes and look into his brother's eyes.

"What?" Roxas asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm trying to fix the institute."

"You are disrupting the flow of time." Ventus winced as he held his head. "You forget that if you change the present that I suffer."

"It is just a headache though," the shadow mutant argued, "Don't you want the institute back the way it was?"

"I do," the elemental mutant agreed, "but you have to remember that altering the present has consequences."

"I know," Roxas said with a heavy sigh, "I just want to try and make things right again."

"Fine," Ventus replied, "but after this no more tampering with my domain."

"Thanks Ven," Roxas smiled.

"What are brothers for?" Ven chuckled before going back into the gummi ship to rest.

Roxas closed his eyes once more and focuses on restoring the institute back to before the battle happened. He took in a deep breath to relax himself from time to time so that he wouldn't loose focus. When he finally opened his eyes the institute was back to normal and would remain that way unless there happened to be another battle that blew it apart again. It made him feel better since he couldn't help in the fight at least everyone had their own room to sleep in now.

Once everyone was settled back in their rooms and the three brotherhood were assigned rooms, silence fell over the institute. Everyone knew that this wasn't the first or last time they would see Xehanort and were preparing for the next battle. Despite everything that happened, Professor Eraqus still suggested that they go back to school eventually. He said that he called up the school and said everyone had come down with the flu so it would give them a week to recover.

Roxas sat on Axel's bed watching the steady rise and fall of the redhead's chest and listening to the soft beeping of the machine. A red strand of hair fell into the fire mutants face which the blonde gently brushed back into place. He wished Axel would hurry up and get better so everything would be back to normal. A soft knock on the door interrupted his thoughts as his blonde brother entered the room with a worried expression.

"What's wrong Ven?" Roxas asked.

"I can't find Sora." Ventus said bitting at his bottom lip. "He isn't in this realm which means he might be..."

"If he was dead I would know Ven," Roxas replied with an annoyed sigh, "He is probably in the realm of light. How's Terra doing?"

"He's fine," Ventus said with a small smile, "He is just resting now. Why do you ask?"

"I saw you asleep next to his bed when I woke up." Roxas chuckled softly, "There has to be something going on between you two."

Ventus didn't say anything, but the blush across his face said enough. He was sure Roxas knew about Terra from their past lives or something, but he hadn't expected to be found out so soon. Truthfully he didn't even understand his own feelings because he knew there was an attraction since they both had elements as their mutant powers, but beyond that he couldn't quite tell.

"Go get some sleep Ven." Roxas suggested, "Sora will show up eventually with that stupid grin on his face telling us everything about his adventure in the realm of light."

"You're right," Ventus agreed with a yawn, "Night Roxas."

Once his brother left the room, he pulled up a chair next to Axel's bed and fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N:**

(1) Samuel Parris was actually the minister during this time I believe, and he did have a daughter that pretty much started the entire thing.

Okay, sorry for not updating in forever. I have been busy with work and school and truthfully, I shouldn't be working on this because finals are just around the corner, but whatever. The first part I have actually had for quite some time, but didn't really know where to go with it. And I notice that when I am stressed because of finals that the muse comes and visits me to play a sick joke on me.

Muse: Here is some inspiration to distract you from studying! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Me: SOB, fml, *a long string of curse words followed by me updating.*

Anyways, I hope you liked it and thank you for being patient with me. I know when stories I like don't update for a long time I get frustrated, but I am always overwhelmed with joy when they finally do!

'Til next time my pretties!

*disappears cackling like a witch*


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